Volume 2 | Issue 1

The Reading Room a journal of special collections

Volume 2, Issue 1 Volume 2, Issue 1

The Reading Room: A Journal of Special Collections is a scholarly journal committed to providing current research and relevant discussion of practices in a special collections library setting. The Reading Room seeks submissions from practitioners and students involved with working in special collections in museums, historical societies, corporate environments, public libraries and academic libraries. Topics may include exhibits, outreach, mentorship, donor relations, teaching, reference, technical and metadata skills, social media, “Lone Arrangers”, management and digital humanities. The journal features single-blind, peer-reviewed research articles and case studies related to all aspects of current special collections work.

Journal credits

Editors-in-Chief: Molly Poremski, Amy Vilz and Marie Elia

Designer: Kristopher Miller

Authors: Peterson Brink, Mary Ellen Ducey, Elizabeth Lorang, Erica Brown, Sarah M. Allison, Wendy Pflug, and Madeline Veitch.

Cover photo: View of the Booth Family Center for Special Collections and The Paul F. Betz Reading Room at Georgetown University Library. Architects: Bowie Gridley, Construction: Manhattan Construction. Image courtesy of Bowie Gridley Architects and Georgetown University Library.

University Archives University at Buffalo 420 Capen Hall Buffalo, NY, 14260

(716) 645-7750 [email protected]

Dear Readers,

Welcome to the third issue of Te Reading Room: A Journal of Special Collections! Our many thanks for your support and enthusiasm to provide an open access and scholarly forum for all those working in, or with, special collections. In this issue, we’re pleased to bring you fve case studies that focus on recent projects completed in special collections environments that explore current challenges and issues facing our profession. As with all successful case studies, the experience of the authors presented here is extensible, from engagement with our stakeholders in collection development and management to how we train and apprentice the next generation of special collections librarians:

» Peterson Brink, Mary Ellen Ducey and Elizabeth Lorang of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln discuss the responsibilities and ethical implications of placing a historically signifcant, yet highly controversial campus humor magazine from the early part of the 20th century online.

» Erica Brown presents her work at Shefeld Hallam University (UK) where she engaged the public in the creating an archive of popular and “middlebrow” fction published between 1900 and 1950.

» Sarah M. Allison discusses the development and implications of a student employee training program at the University of California, Riverside Librar- ies Special Collections & Archives Department.

» Wendy Pfug explores using surveys for assessment in uncovering backlogged, hidden archive and special collections materials.

» Madeline Veitch shares her process of creating a zine library at the State University of New York at New Paltz, including her collaboration with students in the description, collection development, and outreach of the newly-formed collection.

As we continue to receive submissions, we are excited to see the innovation and leadership displayed by those working in special collections. Faculty, staf, and students in this feld share responsibility for all areas of operations in their department, which, while challenging, provides a unique viewpoint and opportunity in engaging users and testing new technologies. Tis issue represents this diversity of experience and perspective, and we hope subsequent issues continue to embody the range of work being done in special collections and connect practitioners with each other. Te editors wish to thank the almost 100 peer reviewers who generously contributed their expertise and time to this issue and the team at Scholastica and the UB Libraries, especially Kristopher Miller and Don Gramlich. We also extend our sincere thanks to all of the authors who submitted articles and to you, our readers. We are actively seeking partners and contributors at Te Reading Room, and we invite you to consider submitting an article or serving as a peer reviewer. Additionally, we are soliciting images, particularly of reading rooms, for our next cover. Images should be a minimum 300 dpi and 8” x 10” in size. Tis issue’s cover image features the Booth Family Center for Special Collections and Te Paul F. Betz Reading Room at Georgetown University Library. A special thank you to Katherine Tomas for sharing the photos of this newly constructed research facility. Questions and comments are always welcome. Please send all inquiries to [email protected]. Whether as an author, reviewer, researcher, or reader, we hope you enjoy this issue of Te Reading Room.

In appreciation,

Molly Poremski Amy Vilz Marie Elia Editor-in-chief Editor-in-chief Editor-in-chief Contents

7 The Case of the Awgwan: Considering Ethics of Digitization and Access for Archives Peterson Brink, Mary Ellen Ducey, and Elizabeth Lorang, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

26 Building a Special Collection of Popular and Middlebrow Fiction, 1900-1950 Erica Brown, Sheffield Hallam University

38 Training the Next Generation: Best Practices in Student Training at the University of California, Riverside Libraries Sarah M. Allison, New Mexico State University

64 Assessing Archival Collections through Surveys Wendy Pflug, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

83 Read a Zine, Then Make One, Then Catalog it: Creating a Zine Library at SUNY New Paltz Madeline Veitch, SUNY New Paltz The Case of the Awgwan: Considering Ethics of Digitization and Access for Archives

Peterson Brink, Mary Ellen Ducey, and Elizabeth Lorang, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Author Note:

Peterson Brink, Assistant Archivist, University Libraries, University of Nebraska–Lincoln; Mary Ellen Ducey, University Archivist, University Libraries, University of Nebraska–Lincoln; Elizabeth Lorang, Humanities Librarian, University Libraries, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to: Elizabeth Lorang, University Libraries, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 225D Love Library, Lincoln, NE 68588-4100.

Contact: [email protected]

7 Abstract

As members of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) Libraries considered digitizing and presenting the campus humor magazine Awgwan online as part of eforts to chronicle the University’s history and invite study of these materials, questions emerged about the ethics and responsibility of placing the Awgwan online in a broadly accessible digital environment. Much of the magazine depended and traded upon negative and destructive depictions of women and people of color as a key part of its “humor.” What are our ethical obligations in treating such materials? Tis essay introduces and analyzes the Awgwan; considers the potential value in making the magazine broadly available electronically; and then explores some of the issues the magazine raises for practitioners in archives and special collections today, particularly as more institutions may consider placing similar materials from their collections online.

Keywords: ethics, digitization, archives and special collections

8 The Case of the Awgwan: Considering Ethics of Digitization and Access for Archives

Peterson Brink, Mary Ellen Ducey, and Elizabeth Lorang, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

In November 1921, the Awgwan, the campus humor magazine of the University of Nebraska warned its readers, “Awgwan is under the eye of a censor. In case we are able we will try to get over 2.75% with a kick in it. Watch Awgwan.” Tis short message to readers of the magazine raises key issues related to the Awgwan in the early twentieth century. Censorship, or the threat of censorship and of suspension, was a concern for Awgwan staf throughout the 1920s. In fact, the magazine was suspended twice during the decade, and news of similar fates for other campus humor magazines was not uncommon in the Awgwan. Te warning also demonstrates the way in which the Awgwan traded on references to popular culture for its humor and cultural critique. In this case, the editors liken their own potential censorship to the prohibition of alcohol in the United States. Te 2.75% threshold indicated the maximum amount of alcohol that could legally be in a beverage at the time. Te Awgwan recognized that it faced a similar threshold: if it exceeded a certain measure of what was considered permissible, it faced restrictions. Te editors also expressed their motive to exceed the threshold, however, pushing the boundaries of what was allowed. Today, the Awgwan raises new “threshold” questions: As members of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) Libraries considered digitizing and presenting the magazine online as part of eforts to chronicle the University’s history and invite study of these materials, questions emerged about the ethics and responsibility of placing the Awgwan online in a broadly accessible

9 digital environment. Much of the magazine depended and traded upon negative and destructive depictions of women and people of color as a key part of its “humor.” What are our ethical obligations in treating such materials? Tis essay introduces and analyzes the Awgwan; considers the potential value in making the magazine broadly available electronically; and then explores some of the issues the magazine raises for practitioners in archives and special collections today, particularly as more institutions may consider placing similar materials from their collections online. In discussing these issues in relation to the Awgwan and within the context of other ethical considerations librarians and archivists face as they digitize and provide electronic access to collections, we recognize how this work may require us to decide between competing values, and we seek, ultimately, to advance the conversation around these topics. Te Awgwan frst appeared on the University of Nebraska campus in 1913 and was part of a larger national trend of campus humor publications. Te frst university humor magazines in the United States emerged in the nineteenth century, at schools such as Yale and Harvard. From the end of the nineteenth century through the frst half of the twentieth, such magazines thrived on college campuses. Te explosion of these magazines coincided with two other cultural phenomena: a growing demand for humor among the middle class and the emergence of the university as a site for socialization, the latter which cultural historian Wickberg (1998) identifes as a “general reconstruction of the American university and its purpose” (p. 129). In his analysis of American humor, Mintz (1990) includes the more than “150 college humor magazines [that] fourished” during the 1920s as one reason the decade was so remarkable for American humor (p. 162). College humor magazines, and their particular brand of humor, were at the height of popularity in the 1920s. Tat the Awgwan was twice suspended during this same decade may be no coincidence; some of the same features that made campus humor magazines fourish also made them controversial. In Sex and the University: Celebrity, Controversy, and a Student Journalism Revolution, for example, Reimold (2010) identifes campus humor magazines as “the earliest sexual provocateurs” (p. 14). Despite their prevalence on college and university campuses in the United States, campus humor publications of the frst half of the twentieth century have received little current scholarly treatment. Nearly thirty years ago, humor scholar Sloane (1987) identifed the magazines as an area for research in the study of humor in the United States. According to Sloane, the history of these magazines is “a record of vitality—a chronicle of rambunctious invasions of sacrosanct territory in politics, social pretension, and sexual mores almost unrivalled in any

10 comparable literary genre” (p. 49-50). And yet, while there has been some discussion of national publications such as College Humor and Life, or of H. L. Mencken’s American Mercury—which can be seen as of-shoots of smaller, local campus humor magazines—the progenitors of these publications sit unexplored in university archives. Some of the magazines, such as the Cornell Widow and the famous Harvard Lampoon, have been featured in anniversary anthologies (Kaplan, 1973; Green, 1981), which include histories and overviews of the publications, but these reprintings feature little to no critical exploration or interpretation. One challenge to the study of campus humor magazines is the accessibility of the materials. Te publications were cheaply produced and ephemeral. Tey are not widely available today, particularly in complete or nearly complete sets and when compared to the accessibility of national humor magazines. University archives and special collections may provide one of few points of access. Terefore, in order to encourage study and analysis of the Awgwan as part of campus and college life in the early twentieth century, of middle class culture, and of humor studies, we set out to digitize and make broadly available issues of the Awgwan. In the course of this work, however, we realized that the digitization and publication strategy developed for other materials in the UNL University Archives is not sufcient for dealing with the Awgwan and its subject matter.

The Awgwan

Students associated with the college of journalism, fne arts, and general campus activities at the University of Nebraska developed the idea for their own campus humor magazine during the 1912–1913 academic year. Te students had great ambition for the magazine, which they titled Awgwan. (To understand the title, imagine a student hearing an unlikely story from a friend. In disbelief the listener says, as an aside, “aw, go on—aw gwan—awgwan.”) Te purpose of the Awgwan was to provide an antidote to the more news-driven options available for reading on campus. At the University of Nebraska, the Daily Nebraskan published a range of news stories, a campus calendar, reviews of activities, and sports articles. It mirrored standard daily newspapers but with the campus at its center. Over the years, several other publications had emerged to supplement options for news and entertainment. An early humor magazine, Te Arrowhead, was estbalished in 1899 and was published monthly until 1902. Student annuals, which began publication in 1881, had humor sections that were similar to the Awgwan and Arrowhead. For example, the 1912 annual included a humor section called “College

11 Life.” With these earlier publications and eforts as a backdrop, the Awgwan eventually became the longest running stand-alone humor publication at the University of Nebraska and represents more than three decades of student life on the campus. Students published the frst Awgwan on February 17, 1913, and meant it to be a semi-monthly endeavor. Te frst editorial, by editor Chandler Trimble, provided an outline of Awgwan policy: the magazine would focus on Nebraska, as Trimble believed students should be aware of the state beyond the university. He further noted that the articles would not always be to everyone’s liking and that the editors “expect a long line of subscribers after each issue to come to our ofce door and demand that we refund their money and stop their subscription to this scurrilous sheet” (p. 12). Indeed, the Awgwan had a tumultuous run on campus due to its content and to other campus publications created by its editors and staf. Publication of the Awgwan was suspended twice, once in 1923-1924, and again in 1929 (Te 1934 Cornhusker, p. 96; Te 1935 Cornhusker, p. 108). After resuming publication in 1931, the Awgwan continued until 1941. In 1941, it drastically changed its style and format, highlighting campus life through photographs. Tis change in format lasted for about fve years, with the fnal published copy of the Awgwan appearing in December 1946. Troughout these three decades, the creation and publication of the Awgwan resided in the hands of students. Tey initiated the original idea and operated the publication with a formal editorial board. Leadership positions such as editor, editor-in-chief, and business manager were often held by the same student for several years. Student staf were assigned to a position for a semester or entire year, and students often played multiple roles. Eventually, supervision of the publication of the Awgwan fell to a professional journalism fraternity, Sigma Delta Chi (SDC), which was based at the University. Even with this change in leadership the majority of content still came from the students (Te 1918 Cornhusker, p. 310). Student volunteers in positions of editors and contributors supervised the development of the periodical and solicited content from the student population on campus. Contributors-at-large were encouraged to contribute to the magazine through direct requests that appeared on the editorial pages, advertisements, and invitations published elsewhere. Much of the editorial content appears without a byline, but cartoons and other graphical contributions include the name of the artist. Te majority of cartoon contributions, particularly editorial cartoons and general illustration cartoons, were created by University of Nebraska students on the Awgwan staf. Te Awgwan also reprinted material from

12 a wide variety of student humor magazines published at other universities and colleges. Tese materials were incorporated into the Awgwan through sections with titles such as “Encore Numbers,” “Curtain Calls,” “Rescued From the Waste Basket,” and “Hand Me Downs.” Some issues were comprised entirely of content from other campus humor magazines. Te Awgwan therefore also provides glimpses into the social and academic humor of other colleges and universities. In just two issues from 1920, for example, the Awgwan included material from the Yale Record, University of California Pelican, Jack-o-Lantern, Chaparral, Columbia University Jester, Carolina Tar Baby, and Lehigh Burr, among others (Awgwan, February 1920, p. 18; Awgwan, March 1920, p. 18). University of Nebraska students were the primary audience for the Awgwan, and its editors sought to explore student life and express opinions about all aspects of the University. Certainly humor is one dimension of the Awgwan. Another is the position of privilege its creators and readers enjoyed as students in a university environment and as participants in the college experience. During the frst three decades of the twentieth century, the nation’s population increased by 75%. At the same time, attendance at U.S. colleges and universities increased an astounding 400% (Levine, 1986, p. 68). Te 1920 census revealed that the United States had moved from a rural to an urban nation. Cities had become the focus of economic, social, and intellectual growth leading to the rise of middle class urban professions, and these changes enhanced the prestige of a college degree (p. 69). As this culture of aspiration fourished in the 1920s, many also looked to college as a way to develop social contacts— even at the expense of the intellectual experience (Knoll, 1995, p. 75). Te amount and content of advertising in the Awgwan is one indication of this privileged audience. In addition to the clothing ads that appear in every issue, featuring the latest fashions for both men and women, advertisements encouraged students to purchase candies and chocolates, pens, stationery, typewriters, watches, and tobacco products. One advertisement for men’s clothes told would-be buyers: “Tey’re made to ft the mind, manner and fgure of Smart-Dreesing [sic] Fellows, their Value Scurries up – up – up Continually; it Teases attention constantly” (Awgwan, November 1921, p. 15). At the same time, students were bombarded by ads for bakeries, cafeterias, diners and grocers, barber and beauty shops, bookstores, cleaners, dance classes, jewelers and opticians, pharmacies, portrait studios, printers and engravers, and tailors. Advertisements such as these bring into focus certain aspects of student life and the construction of the college experience in the early twentieth century. Te editorial and artistic content of the magazine brings other aspects of campus life into focus as well—and makes the attention to

13 status through material goods and commodities appear innocuous in contrast. In particular, the magazine’s depiction of racial, ethnic, and religious minorities, and of women or qualities gendered as feminine, demonstrate that the University of Nebraska college experience of the early twentieth century was a construct defned as white, western, “masculine,” and Christian. Now, well into the second decade of the twenty-frst century, as colleges and universities confront compliance with Title IX and with systemic racism and civil rights issues on our campuses, what responsibilities do universities and their archival repositories have in making available parts of our institutional histories—such as the Awgwan? On the one hand, such materials and histories are poised to play important roles in understanding cultural phenomena such as humor magazines and the role of humor more generally and in developing understanding of the complicated histories of higher education in the United States. Furthermore, it is important that insitutions recognize these problematic histories and that we do not put forward only a positive face in the materials we make broadly available. On the other hand, the presentation of such materials makes immediately available materials of textual and visual violence which, particularly when shorn of contextualization and analysis, perpetuate the very systems we aspire to replace. Beginning with its mascot, the Awgwan both traded on and benefted from racial and ethnic stereotypes. Te frst mascot of the Awgwan was the fgure of an American Indian baby, shown without clothes, wearing a headdress and swinging a hatchet. After a year, the mascot become the fgure of an American Indian adult male, depicted with a hatchet and holding fowers. In 1914, the mascot was again an American Indian child, in diapers and moccasins, holding paper and a pipe, while standing next to a feathered helmet and a quill in ink. Te Awgwan mascot was the most visible, but certainly not the only attempt at rendering and describing American Indians in the magazine. Other examples—among dozens— include the use of the term “red skin” and a defnition for Powhatan that references alcohol (Awgwan, October 1920, p. 17). Black Americans were the target of this harmful humor as well. Many illustrations depict characters in blackface, exaggerate physical features, and frequently use “dialect” in dialogue and captions for Black individuals. Writers and artists frequently used dehumanizing words and terminology to reference Black men and women. Further, cartoons and jokes in the Awgwan depend on familiarity with Jim Crow laws and related social practices, and many jokes assume a universal preference for whiteness in order for their “humor” to “work.” A cartoon drawing titled “Try Our New Complexion Clay” shows before and after instances with “before”

14 a profle of a man in blackface and the “after” a profle of a white man (Awgwan, November 1924, p. 18). A number of jokes from the mid- 1920s center on the Ku Klux Klan and lynching (Awgwan, May 1925, p. 12; Awgwan, November 1925, p. 4). Additional content, sometimes called annual jokes, referenced Italian, German, Spanish, and Chinese stereotypes for their humor. For example, the Awgwan touted its “Annual Chinese Joke.” Some of this content was original, and some pieces were reprinted from other campus humor magazines. Te January 1927 exchange number, for example, included cartoons depicting Sitting Bull and two men in blackface, taken from other universities’ publications (p. 22, 30). Te magazine also reused artwork in a more subtle assertion about ethnic and religious identity. For example, an image from a cartoon in a December 1925 issue, ostensibly depicting two Muslim men, is reused the following month for another cartoon about Muslims. Tis reuse of imagery is a subtle but powerful expression about the sameness and interchangeableness of Muslim identities. Women’s bodies and minds were similarly seen as fair game by Awgwan contributors. Troughout the 1920s, Awgwan content relating to women focused on appearance, intelligence, dating, relationships, fnances, and attitudes towards women as students or “co-eds.” Many of the jokes about women revolve around their looks, weight, and attire (Awgwan, November 1924, p. 8). Te many jokes on the length of women’s dresses were really expressions of sexuality, and what was seen as appropriate for men and women. Te May 1921 issue, for example, celebrated that “Skirts are now so short that a man doesn’t have to deform himself by bending when he wants to enjoy the views along the street,” while another joke, a conversation between a freshman and sophomore, shows appreciation for apparel that “protects private property, and yet doesn’t spoil the view” (p. 13). In addition, a number of the jokes from this period depend on apparent violence toward women only to have the punchline demonstrate that it was not a woman that was being beaten, choked, or murdered, but an object such as a bottle of alcohol. Perhaps in an attempt to address the representation of women and to provide an avenue for their voices, one issue ostensibly served as a response to the way the magazine presented women in earlier numbers. Te “Sweet Mama” number (March 1923) was “written and edited by University girls, under the direction of Carolyn Airy, associate editor of the Awgwan” (p. 1). Regardless of this distinction in contributors and editors, the contents of this volume are very much of a piece with earlier numbers, demonstrating how ingrained these social attitudes were.

15 For the majority of its publication, little documentation exists to show how students, faculty, and the administration regarded the Awgwan. For the most part, the content of the Awgwan went unchallenged, even when they appeared to “get over 2.75% with a kick in it.” Te magazine had two gaps in publication, however, one in 1923–1924 and another in 1929. While no extant documentation points to the precise reasons for what later Cornhusker yearbooks called “suspensions,” the Awgwan’s content appears to have been at issue, as well as its relationship to other humor publications and student groups (Te 1934 Cornhusker, p. 96; Te 1935 Cornhusker, p. 108). In February 1923, for example, the same student fraternity that oversaw publication of the Awgwan produced its annual four page paper, the Evening Shun, as part of University Night, a student-sponsored social event. Leading up to the 1923 Shun, student publishers met with university administators and faculty to make clear they would publish the Shun only if they could do so without censorship. Administrators agreed, and the students delivered the Shun for University Night on February 17, 1923. Te publication featured commentary on students, faculty, athletics, Greek life, and campus activities. It mentioned students by name, and focused on issues of appearance, intelligence, relationships, and dating. Te response to the 1923 Shun was damning: the Pan-Hellenic Council, representing 16 Nebraska sororities, rebuked it for its “attacks on women students,” its “vulgarity,” and its “slurs on the morality of women students” (Avery, 1923, Feb. 21). Meanwhile, Harold F. Holtz, Secretary of the Alumni Association, wrote to Chancellor Samuel Avery and declared that neither University Night nor the Shun represented “the things which the University of Nebraska stands for. It does not seem to me that the Evening Shun in its present form contributes one iota to the fun or jollity of the occasion, nor does it seem to me that such activity on the part of Sigma Delta Chi should be longer permitted” (Holtz, 1923, Feb. 20). Holtz continued, “I can see no reason why a publication which is essentially libelous in character and which is particularly ofensive to anyone who has a great amount of respect for womanhood, should be allowed to appear again.” Others also condemned the Shun for its depiction of the “moral character” of women students at the University (Farnam, 1923, Feb. 17). As a result, the February 1923 issue marked the last publication of the Shun, and four years later, University Night itself was abolished. 1. We have not been able to locate Te formal announcement from Sigma Delta Chi, the fraternity that issues of the Awgwan for the 1923- published the Shun, announcing the end of the Shun appeared in March 1924 academic year. Later Nebraska yearbooks refer to a suspension of the 1923. Two months later, in May 1923, the fnal issue of the Awgwan Awgwan in 1924. If issues exist from 1 August-December of 1923, there do not appeared, before an apparent 18-month break in publication. Tere is appear to be extant copies. In any case, not enough evidence to claim that the Shun incident was directly related there was an extended hiatus for the magazine, for as little as one year and as to this hiatus in publication for the Awgwan, but the timing and other much as eighteen months.

16 similarities are suggestive. Te Shun was published by the same fraternity that oversaw publication of the Awgwan, and the criticisms of the Shun highlight key issues that also would have been at stake for the Awgwan. Notably, the criticisms of the Shun focused on its representation of the moral character of women in the student body. Tese criticisms did not take to task the problematic representations of women from a feminist perspective but rather were critical of the Shun’s implications that university women did not behave appropriately. At the same time, the fnal issue of Awgwan prior to its hiatus acknowledges support from students and faculty: “Te students and alumni have backed the magazine to the limit and have been consistent boosters. Te relations of the faculty, too, have been very gratifying” (Awgwan, May 1923, p. 9). Te Awgwan’s publication gap during the 1923–1934 academic year remains a bit of a mystery, but its timing and the magazine’s connection to the Shun provide at least a glimpse into what the reaction to the Awgwan and its content may have been on the campus. Te Awgwan resumed publication in November 1925. On the surface, little appears to have changed with the publication, though it made rhetorical gestures over time that suggest it was aware of the perpetual “threshold” it was up against. In March 1927, for example, the editors wrote, “we plan to run no scandal sheet. Nothing will ever be printed that is meant as slander. Nothing will be found in our columns that suggest immorality” (Awgwan, March 1927, p. 9). Such statements, however, did not apply to the magazine’s presentation of racial and ethnic minorities, nor to its presentation of many women’s-related topics. In fact, very little seems to have changed in the Awgwan despite this proclamation, and the magazine ran without major interruption until 1929. In 1929, however, an unknown controversy again brought the magazine to a halt. Neither the Awgwan itself nor university administrative records indicate the exact situation that shuttered the Awgwan, but various resources hint at the underlying reasons. Te Cornhusker yearbook references the suspension, indicating that the Student Publications Board abolished the magazine due to “alleged obscenity,” while the Daily Nebraskan described the suspension as the result of “questionable material” (Te 1930 Cornhusker, p. 110; Daily Nebraskan, November 26, 1929, p. 110- 111). A year later, in November 1930, Sigma Delta Chi sought to reestablish the Awgwan. Tey made several assurances, if their request was approved: they would secure subscriptions, secure advertising, and “recruit a sufcient number of responsible, capable applicants for staf positions” (Daily Nebraskan, November 13, 1930). Te Student Publication Board was in favor of the Awgwan’s return, if it was on sound fnancial footing (Daily Nebraskan, November 20, 1930). Tree months later, in February 1931, the Awgwan again appeared on the University of Nebraska campus with the sponsorship of Sigma Delta Chi. Te magazine continued publication until 1941, at which time it was dramatically reinvented to focus on a photographic representation of campus life. Te fnal issue of this new Awgwan appeared in December 1946.

17 The Bigger Picture

Regardless of how its contemporaries viewed the Awgwan, and how much of the material its original audiences found either innocuous or objectionable and why, we recognize much of the magazine’s content today as racist, sexist, xenophobic, classist, and participatory in maintaining power structures that beneftted a select few and oppressed many more. While these qualities make the magazine deplorable on many counts, it nonetheless has value for research—in some cases because of these very issues with the magazine. Tere are, then, important reasons for making sure it is available for study: it has value for humor studies—including studies of the ways in which humor has served oppression, or made oppression more palatable to dominant cultures or to those in power—for histories of American magazines, for understanding the functions and dysfunctions of higher education in the United States in the frst half of the twentieth century, and, more locally, to both broader and deeper understanding of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, among other possible research angles. As a result, a complete run of the Awgwan is preserved and made available in physical form on site in the reading room and has been for decades, similar to other equivalent publications at other institutions and archival repositories. Recognizing its research value and as part of larger initiatives to digitize the history of the institution, we recently set out to provide digital public access to the materials, with the goal of encouraging broader research use of the Awgwan. We began digitizing the Awgwan, and in the process examined the magazine in more detail than we had opportunity to do in the past. Te work of digitizing, in which we manually turned pages and oriented the magazine for each overhead scan, led us to see, at scale, the magazine’s prejudices, biases, and oppressive and destructive rhetoric—both textual and visual. As we digitized issues and discussed what we read and observed, we became increasingly uncomfortable with the idea of making widely publicly available digital content full of such messages, which could be easily and broadly circulated via the Internet either without context or with ahistorical context. Tere perhaps appears a tension in our reluctance, a tension between values of access and the role of archives—to provide access to the historical record without regard to content—and our desire to create some barriers to the circulation of the Awgwan’s pernicious messages, particularly those messages shorn of context. Te idea of providing access to the historical record without regard to content, however, may be more easily adopted within the environment of the in-person reading room, where there are inherently barriers to access as well as various points at which researchers must pause and think. As Dalgleish (2011) puts it,

18 In the pre-Internet days, the fact that a collection was, in the legal sense, available to any member of the public did not mean that it was in fact easily accessible by all the public. Tere were physical barriers to access such as the location of the archives, the retrieval process, the willingness and skill of the archivist, and the perseverance and knowledge of the researcher. Tere were exceptions, such as exhibitions and published collections of archival material. However, for the most part archives were accessible only within the archival institutions. (p. 70)

Furthermore, in the reading room model, there are pause points in place, such as reading research rules, registering, requesting materials, and seeking permission to publish. Barriers to entry (such as the fnancial cost of travel) and these administrative processes can make the use of archives impossible or inconvenient enough to discourage all but the most serious researchers. While these barriers were not necessarily constructed to limit certain types of use, limitations to use certainly emerged as a consequence. Public digital access is intended in part to diminish these and other access barriers, including those emerging out of fnancial, information privacy, and other concerns. For many intents and purposes, public digital access is a very good development, but we must also think critically about ethical implications and professional values beyond only widespread access. Te paramount question, according to Dalgleish, is “whether we can in theory make available online any and all materials which we can legally make available in our public reading rooms, and if not, why not, and on what basis do we limit access to material online which we would make available in our reading rooms” (p. 72). Dalgleish identifes two particular ethical dilemmas for archivists in making materials available online: privacy and “inappropriate material” (p. 73). Even in cases where an archive would be within its legal rights to make certain materials available online, would it be violating ethical norms with regard to privacy, for example? On the issue of privacy, Robertson’s (2016) recent response to Reveal Digital’s digitization of the lesbian porn magazine On Our Backs (1984– 2004) shows why privacy considerations might impact librarians’ and archivists’ decisions about making material available online, even if there are no legal barriers to doing so. In the case of On Our Backs, Robertson argues that consenting to appear in a print magazine is not the same as consenting to have your photos appear online (n.p.). Furthermore, the fact that the frst decade of On Our Backs predated widespread use of the Internet--to say nothing of the twenty-frst-century world wide web and related technologies- -means that there could have been no expectation or assumption on the part of the photographic subjects that their images would circulate freely

19 and widely in the way that inclusion on Reveal Digital’s site now facilitates (Robertson, n.p.). Are Reveal Digital and holding institutions within their legal rights to make the materials available? Te answer seems to be yes, but we can and should question whether they are acting responsibly and ethically. To Dalgleish’s dilemmas, we also would add the ethical considerations at play in digitizing and making accessible materials for which there are extra- legal ownership issues. In this regard, there has been some sustained discussion and action surrounding ethics of digital access of Indigenous cultural heritage materials. Writing in the Journal of Western Archives, Kimberly Christen (2015) writes, “Te colonial collecting project was a destructive mechanism by which Indigenous cultural materials were removed from communities and detached from local knowledge systems. Much of this material remains today not only physically distant from local communities, but also lodged within a legal system that steadfastly refuses local claims to stewardship of these materials” (p. 2). As archivists and others begin thinking about digitizing these materials, they must be aware that digitizing and providing for access and use has the potential to become the most recent act of colonization. Christen and others have argued that blind adherence to the ethos of the current open access movement privileges a predominantly white and Western perspective on intellectual property over the knowledge and cultural practices of the creators (Christen 2015; Genovese, T. R. 2016). Tis situation led Christen and other team members to develop both the Mukurtu content management system (mukurtu.org), which “allows [Indigenous] communities to defne levels of access to and and circulation of their digital heritage materials” (p. 5), and the Local Contexts project (localcontexts. org). Local Contexts supports Indigenous communities in managing their cultural heritage within digital systems and digital culture, and it ofers educational and technical resources. One of its projects is Traditional Knowledge (TK) labels, a mechanism that allows “Native, First Nations, Aboriginal and Indigenous communities to add existing local protocols for access and use to recorded cultural heritage that is digitally circulating outside community contexts” (localcontexts org tk-labels). For users outside these communities, visible TK labels offer an “educative and informational strategy” for learning about ownership, sharing, and access practices, and the many local contexts that inform the circulation of Indigenous cultural heritage materials. While these concerns related to Indigenous materials, as well as the On Our Backs example, are signifcantly diferent than those involved in public digital access to the Awgwan, they begin to demonstrate the range of ethical considerations, particularly with regard to privacy and to ideas of ownership, in digitizing and making openly accessible archival collections and holdings. Dalgleish identifed also an ethical dilemma related to what he calls “inappropriate” or “unacceptable” content. For Dalgleish, this is “material that might ofend, distress or concern members of the community who have no direct

The Case of the Awgwan: Considering Ethics of Digitization and Access for Archives | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 20 connection with the material” (p. 73) and material that “may . . . be perceived as distasteful” (p. 77). Of course, all of these terms—”inappropriate,” “unacceptable,” “distressing,” “concerning,” “distasteful”—represent subjective measures. Te types of materials that raised questions of propriety and acceptability among Dalgleish’s colleagues were those that document, either textually or visually, human nudity, dead bodies and dismembered body parts, sexual acts, and deaths and accidents (p. 78). Similarly, in a 2013 article on digitizing the student publication Salient at Victoria University Wellington, Sullivan identifed images of “graphic violence, death, and nudity” as the impetus for questions about “what is appropriate to display online and what will ofend researchers.” Tese discussions suggest that it is documentary, graphic depictions of the human body and its physicality that are at the core of what users and others might deem “inappropriate.” With the Awgwan, we confront a diferent range of issues: the material is signifying rather than documentary, art rather than—or as well as—record, and the depicted bodies and minds are not those of real human beings. Nonetheless, in thinking about making the Awgwan publicy available online, the question that has emerged for us as key is: should the magazine’s systemic racism, sexism, and other systems of oppression afect how we make the materials available online, and if so, how? Archives & Special Collections and afliated initiatives at UNL have faced similar concerns with other digitization projects, including with the online access and crowdsourcing of University of Nebraska yearbooks (yearbooks. unl.edu) and Civil War Washington (civilwardc.org).2 In the case of the yearbooks, the FAQ page includes a question about ofensive materials and what readers should do if they fnd such material. Te response cautions, “Materials in the transcription project are historical. As such, they may contain racial or sexual stereotypes that are inappropriate by today’s standards. Tey have been retained in order to fully represent the materials in their original context. If the ofensive text is not in the original but occurred during the transcription process, please email us” (n.d., n.p.). UNL archivists and other members of the project team determined that this was an appropriate strategy because the majority of content in the yearbooks did not feature highly problematic depictions of racial and ethnic minorities or of women. In the case of Civil War Washington, project directors added a disclaimer to one section of the site, which features medical and surgical cases from the Civil War. In this cases, the materials fall under the category of potentially objectionable items dealing with human bodies identifed in Dalgleish. On the index of these cases, the disclaimer reads, “Tis section contains graphic descriptions and images of war injuries. Users are advised that they may fnd some of this material disturbing” (Lawrence, Lorang, Price, and Winkle, n.d., 2. Authors of this essay have contributed to and directed Nebraska Yearbooks and n.p.). Both of these statements are articulated once, on single pages of their Civil War Washington.

21 sites, and simply announce that users may fnd material problematic. Certainly one approach to presenting the Awgwan online would have been to follow this model; however, we identifed two problems with this approach in this particular cases. First, a single message articulated once on sites with thousands of items and pages provides no guarantee—or even a reasonable expectation—that people will see the message. Certainly, the message could be repeated on every page, but our second problem with this overall approach is that a disclaiming message is the wrong rhetorical strategy, because it emerges out of pseudo-legal impetus rather than ethical or educative concerns. Our goal is not to cover our bases, but rather to make the materials broadly available online in an ethically responsible fashion. At this time, we believe doing so requires both context and teaching, not only access. Terefore, our own decision at this point is not to make the Awgwan available online until we can provide important contextual and teaching materials. Certainly, the act of deliberately not releasing this material, which from a technical perspective is largely ready to go, makes us uncomfortable. But, providing access stripped of context and critical engagement makes us equally uncomfortable, if not more, so. To be clear, this decision is not made in any way with the idea of protecting our institutional history but emerges out of our concern that we not facilitate the work of oppression by elevating voices and ideas such as those from the Awgwan in an uninformed, uncritical, and decontextualized environment. Exactly what an informed, critical, contextualized environment would look like for the Awgwan is not something we have pursued in earnest, in part because we are now also grappling with whether to spend the limited amount of time we have for creating digital collections on the Awgwan. Tis situation has prompted us to do some soul searching and to confront issues that are not easy or pleasant, but neither is history nor the documentation of that history easy or pleasant. Ultimately, we aspire to an access model that honors the archival mission and the value of historical records, but we also recognize that archives are not apolitical, and archival acts and information processes are not neutral. For a magazine that was consistently pushing against the threshold of what was permissible and raised concerns of censorship in its own time, we want to be attune to such issues today. We also, however, want to think critically about the voices we amplify in our digital collections, particularly given the ways in which digital materials circulate and also with attention to the voices that have historically been silenced—whether silenced in relation to the records that were created and kept or in how those records have been curated and the degree to which they have been made fndable. By talking openly about the Awgwan, the tensions in treating the magazine, and our intentions—original and current—we hope to prompt further, continued conversation about the range of ethical considerations, and ethical obligations, in digitizing archival materials.

22 References

Te 1918 Cornhusker: Te annual yearbook published by students of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. (1918). Student Publication Records (RG38-01-01) Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries.

Te 1930 Cornhusker: Te annual yearbook published by students of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. (1930). Student Publication Records (RG38-01-01) Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries.

Te 1934 Cornhusker: Te annual yearbook published by students of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. (1934). Student Publication Records (RG38-01-01) Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries.

Te 1935 Cornhusker: Te annual yearbook published by students of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. (1935). Student Publication Records (RG38-01-01) Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries.

Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries. (n.d.) University of Nebraska Yearbooks. Retrieved from http://yearbooks.unl.edu

Avery, Samuel. (1923, Feb. 21) [Letter to Ofce of Executive Dean to National Ofcers of Sigma Delta Chi]. Samuel Avery Subject Correspondence (RG05- 10-04) Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries.

Awgwan. (1920, Feb.). Student Publication Records (RG 38-01-06) Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries.

Awgwan. (1920, Mar.). Student Publication Records (RG 38-01-06) Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries.

Awgwan. (1920, Oct.). Student Publication Records (RG 38-01-06) Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries.

Awgwan. (1921, May). Student Publication Records (RG 38-01-06) Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries.

Awgwan. (1921, Nov.). Student Publication Records (RG 38-01-06) Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries.

Awgwan. (1923, Mar.). Student Publication Records (RG 38-01-06) Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries.

Awgwan. (1923, May). Student Publication Records (RG 38-01-06) Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries.

23 Awgwan. (1924, Nov.). Student Publication Records (RG 38-01-06) Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries.

Awgwan. (1925, Nov.). Student Publication Records (RG 38-01-06) Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries.

Awgwan. (1925, Dec.). Student Publication Records (RG 38-01-06) Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries.

Awgwan. (1927, Jan.). Student Publication Records (RG 38-01-06) Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries.

Awgwan. (1927, Mar.). Student Publication Records (RG 38-01-06) Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries.

Christen, K. (2015). Tribal archives, traditional knowledge, and local contexts: Why the “s” matters. Journal of Western Archives, (6)1

Daily Nebraskan. (1929, Nov. 26). Student Publication Records (RG 38-01-02) Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries.

Daily Nebraskan. (1930, Nov. 13). Student Publication Records (RG 38-01-02) Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries.

Daily Nebraskan. (1930, Nov. 20). Student Publication Records (RG 38-01-02) Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries.

Dalgleish, P. (2011). Te thorniest area: Making collections accessible online while respecting individual and community sensitivities. Archives and Manuscripts, 39(1), 67-84.

Farman, B., et al. (1923, Feb. 17) [Resolution of the Societies of the Centurions and Vestals] Samuel Avery Subject Correspondence (RG05-10-04) Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries.

Genovese, T. R. (2016). Decolonizing archival methodology: Combating hegemony and moving towards a collaborative archival environment. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, (12)1. 32-42. doi: 10.20507/AlterNative.2016.12.1.

Green, J. (1981). Te Cornell Widow hundredth anniversary anthology. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Widow.

Holtz, H. F. (1923, Feb. 20) [Letter to Samuel Avery] Samuel Avery Subject Correspondence (RG05-10-04) Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries.

24 Hyde, W. (1923, Feb. 23) [Letter to Chancellor of the University] Samuel Avery Subject Correspondence (RG05-10-04) Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries.

Kaplan, M. (1973). Te Harvard Lampoon centennial celebration, 1876-1973. Boston: Little, Brown.

Knoll, R. E. (1995). Prairie university: A history of the University of Nebraska. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Levine, D. O. (1986). Te American college and the culture of aspiration, 1915- 1940. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Lawrence, S., E. Lorang, K. Price, and K. Winkle. (Eds.) (n.d.). Civil War Washington. Retrieved from http://civilwardc.org

Local contexts. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://mukurtu.org

Mintz, L. E. (1990). American humor in the 1920s. In L. R. Broer & J. D. Walther (Eds.), Dancing Fools and Weary Blues: Te Great Escape of the Twenties. (pp. 160-171). Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press.

Mukurtu. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://mukurtu.org

Ofce of Executive Dean (1923, Feb. 21) [Letter to National Ofcers of Sigma Delta Chi ] Samuel Avery Subject Correspondence (RG05-10-04) Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries.

Reimold, D. (2010). Sex and the university: Celebrity, controversy, and a student journalism revolution. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Robertson, T. (2016, March 20). Digitization: Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Retrieved April 12, 2016, from http://tararobertson.ca/2016/oob/

Sloane, D. E. (1987). American humor magazines and comic periodicals. New York: Greenwood Press.

Sullivan, M. (2013). Digitising the swinging sixties: Dealing with sensitive material published in Salient 1960-69. NZLIMJ, 53(1). Retrieved April 24, 2016

Trimble, C. (1913, February). Editorial. Awgwan. Student Publication Records (RG 38-01-06) Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska- Lincoln Libraries.

Wickberg, D. (1998). Te senses of humor: Self and laughter in modern America. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

25 Building a Special Collection of Popular and Middlebrow Fiction, 1900-1950

Erica Brown, Sheffield Hallam University

Author Note:

Erica Brown, Humanities Research Centre, Sheffield Hallam University.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Erica Brown, Sheffield Hallam University, Howard Street, Sheffield S1 1WB, UK .

Contact: [email protected]

26 Abstract

In 2011, Shefeld Hallam University, UK, launched an archive of popular and “middlebrow” fction published between 1900 and 1950. Tis article will describe the innovative practices developed at the university to collect, research, and catalog the novels, and how members of the public have been actively involved in these processes. As well as producing signifcant scholarly outputs, this project formed an innovative Impact Case Study for submission to the Research Excellence Framework in 2014. Tis system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions requires departments to demonstrate the impact their research has had outside academia.

Keywords: popular fction, middlebrow, literary history, twentieth century, public engagement

27 Building a Special Collection of Popular and Middlebrow Fiction, 1900-1950

Erica Brown, Sheffield Hallam University

Te Readerships and Literary Cultures 1900-1950 Special Collection at Shefeld Hallam University is a unique resource. Popular novels of the period are rarely preserved systematically in the UK; our university libraries have never collected this type of fction, while public libraries regularly disposed of such books once they fell out of fashion. Works by individual popular authors are sometimes preserved in special collections, usually in the city associated with the author, such as the J. B. Priestley collection at the University of Bradford, but the Shefeld Hallam collection brings together the disparate popular and middlebrow fction from the period, refecting the wide range of literary tastes. It includes over 1,250 novels by 351 authors, ranging from those who have been remembered and reprinted, such as Elizabeth von Arnim and John Buchan, to those who have been almost entirely forgotten, such as Warwick Deeping, W. Riley and Elinor Mordaunt.1 As many of these authors died relatively recently, (less than 70 years ago), their works remain in copyright and will not be digitized for many years. Out-of- print, their works are therefore in danger of being lost. In addition to the novels, there is a small collection of non-fction: biographies, histories of publishing houses, and contemporary literary criticism, which inform our understanding of literary culture of this period.

Popular and Middlebrow Fiction

Te scholarly rationale for the collection grew out of the work of the 1. A full list of contents is available at www.middlebrow-network.com/ Middlebrow Network, a transatlantic interdisciplinary research network SpecialCollection.aspx. funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.2 Te network 2. See www.middlebrow-network.com. provides a focus for research into the disreputable term middlebrow and Tere are currently 337 subscribers to the network mailing list and 192 in the the areas of cultural production it purports to represent. Middlebrow database of researchers.

28 culture is that of the masses. It is therefore fundamentally important to collect and research these novels because these are what the majority of people read; they were the best-sellers and the lending library favorites of their day and reveal an enormous amount about cultural life in the period. Academic scholarship of the early twentieth-century has tended to focus on the avant-garde movement, modernism, and in doing so, has constructed a distorted view of literary history that often ignores what the majority of people were reading. In the categorization of low-, middle- and high-brow literature, the question of readership is crucial. In the earlier twentieth century when the term emerged, middlebrow became associated with both a mass middle- class readership and with the female reader. Te much-debated label middlebrow, therefore, is as much about who is reading, as what is read. Tis is demonstrated by Q.D. Leavis’s seminal Fiction and the Reading Public (1932), a key source of contemporary opinion on popular and middlebrow authorship. Tis highly infuential polemic, (based on Leavis’s PhD thesis), sought to examine public taste in reading through an in-depth study of the production of books, from the advice of editors and the machinations of promotion, to the recommendations of the assistant on the book shop foor. Leavis aimed to be anthropological, but she brought to bear on her study the full weight of an increasing pessimism and paranoia among the cultural elite in which she wished to be part. She believed that literary culture was in a process of disintegration, soon to be dominated by lowbrow pulp, and more threateningly, the middlebrow. Ironically, Leavis’s book ofers rare critical traces of the authors that she sought to demonstrate were unworthy of attention. She gives particular attention to the novelists Gilbert Frankau and Warwick Deeping, now almost forgotten, but two of the most popular writers of the period. Leavis gives quotations from Frankau’s novels Gerald Cranston’s Lady and Life-and Erica, and from Warwick Deeping’s Sorrell and Son, to argue that they “touch grossly on fne issues”:

Tis for the sensitive minority is no laughing matter: these novelists are read by the governing classes as well as by the masses, and they impinge directly on the world of the minority, menacing the standards by which they live. And whereas their forerunners were innocent of malice, devoting themselves to assuring their readers of “the beauty of human afection and the goodness of God,” these writers are using the technique of Marie Corelli and Mrs. Barclay to work upon and solidify herd prejudice and to debase

29 the emotional currency by touching grossly on fne issues. (Leavis, 2000, p. 67)

Te point seems to be that these novels are not worthy to examine the important emotional issues of the day. Tey are, by their own admission, not intellectual. Leavis seizes upon Frankau’s declaration that “authorship is not so much a function of the brain as it is of the heart. And the heart is a universal organ” (p. 68). But this is simply “herd prejudice” rather than universal emotions, in Leavis’s view. Te reader of bestsellers, Leavis argues, goes to them “to be confrmed in his prejudices” (p. 69). However, one gets the sense from Leavis that this would be acceptable if it were just the reading of the masses—the problem is that the governing classes read them too, and thus these novels and their reading culture impinge on the sensitive minority—i.e. the intellectual. What particularly upset Leavis is that these novelists were not trying to emulate good or highbrow literature; instead, they were openly hostile to it. Pamela Frankau wrote an account of her father’s approach to writing in Pen to Paper (1961) which shows that he was well aware of his status in contemporary literary hierarchies:

In Gilbert’s view, he was a paid entertainer, who must never for a minute lose sight of his public. It was, he admitted, as difcult as shooting on a moving target. “Unlike your highbrow friends I don’t regard myself as a hothouse-blooming genius.” He wrote for housewives and ex-soldiers and tired business-men and what he still called “fappers.” A novel’s frst duty was to be long. I have seen him pick up a short one with the disgust of somebody who found something nasty in the salad: “Call that a novel – look at it ... can’t be more than sixty thousand words at the outside.” Te public deserved their money’s worth. Length, sex, colour, pace, action; and— most importantly—life-size characters. (Frankau, 1961, p. 186-187)

A focus on the importance of audiences has been a key advance in thinking developed through the Middlebrow Network’s research. Tere has been a move away from thinking about the middlebrow as a genre or style and towards an understanding of it as a mode of production and reception. Te special collection at Shefeld Hallam University was designed to support this developing direction in research, as well as involve the contemporary reading public.

30 Building, Researching, and Cataloging the Collection

Te collection began with an initial donation of 450 books by a retiring academic, Dr. Mary Grover.3 Since then the collection has grown to 1,200 books, almost all through donations from the public. Building a collection in this way means that we do not seek and acquire particular texts to fll a perceived gap; instead, the collection grows through serendipity, and more signifcantly, by what texts people have thought worth keeping over the years. Many donations have come when an elderly relative dies and we receive a whole collection of novels from this period that the person valued enough to keep for over sixty years. Sometimes donations have come from the descendants of popular novelists. An important example of this was the donation of the works of Gilbert Frankau and his literary family by his grandson. Te donor is noted on the catalog record for each book; searching by donor name gives a researcher the group of texts the donor kept from this period. While contemporary critical opinion often homogenized the reading of middlebrow, these individual donations show that readers often read and kept novels that ranged across the hierarchy of brows, and indeed, that novels lumped together as middlebrow have little in common in style or subject matter. Te collecting policy is to preserve early editions of adult novels published between 1900 and 1950 that were signifcant to contemporary readers either because they sold well or because the names of their authors were widely recognized and had come to represent the tastes of a particular readership. Te collection does not usually include authors whose enduring popularity or assured place in the literary canon ensure they will remain in print or accessible in digital versions. Likewise, for reasons of space, the collection does not attempt to hold complete works for prolifc, popular novelists, such as Edgar Wallace, of the period. One of the key aims of the collection is to preserve these books as material objects. It is only with the physical artifact that we can see evidence of ownership, readership, and the value placed on the book. Many of the books in the collection contain bookplates, inscriptions, annotations, and library stamps. W. Kirk, for example, designed his own bookplate in the 1930s, which he placed in all his books. Te completely forgotten comic novel Te Major’s Candlesticks by George A. Birmingham (1929) contains the original library stamps and reveal it was continually on loan from the

Derby Railway Institute lending library in the early 1930s. An inscription, 3. Mary Grover is author of Warwick “From Dad” in Ethel M Dell’s highly sexual and violent romance novel Deeping: Te Ordeal of Warwick Deeping: Middlebrow Authorship and Te Bars of Iron (1916), informs us that this was considered a suitable Cultural Embarrassment (Associated University Presses, 2009) and co-editor gift, presumably for a daughter. Te books, most of which do not have with Erica Brown, Middlebrow Literary a high monetary value, are reference only because of their increasing Cultures: Te Battle of the Brows, 1920- 1960 (Palgrave, 2012).

31 fragility through age. However, it was decided from the beginning that to increase the accessibility and usage of the collection, the books would be on open shelving rather than in the restricted special collections area. Te development of the collection coincided with refurbishment of the library and a special enclosed pod was built to house it, with a desk and comfortable seating area within that quickly became popular with students and visitors. It was particularly important to keep the books on open shelves to encourage use by students, a priority for the library. In special collections, resources are always limited. Shefeld Hallam employed one researcher to work alongside the library cataloging team. Te aim, in addition to the normal cataloging of the books, was to collect highly detailed data on the novels, including: genre, subject, evidence of ownership, advertisements/marketing, plot summary, and indicators of literary and cultural taste. Te last was collected through quotations from the novel which mentioned books, newspapers, plays, flms, authors, and reading, or high, low, or middlebrows. Te objective was to identify brow terms and depictions of other authors and texts in order to understand how fction writers both responded to and constructed the literary hierarchies of the period. To do this the books needed to be read, and clearly the number of novels the researcher alone could read was small. Terefore, the creating of reading groups with members of the public was not only a valuable outreach activity for the university, but fulflled a real research need. By recruiting through links with local libraries, existing reading groups, and public lectures, we soon had two groups of readers meeting each month to read novels from the collection under the guidance of the researcher. Each person read a diferent novel, and completed a template to collect this information. Te additional content from the form was added to the standard library catalog record using Millennium, a library Management System from Innovative Interfaces, with the researcher trained to input this additional data into the record. We decided to use the library catalog rather than building a new, stand-alone database in order to take advantage of its search capabilities and accessibility. Most importantly, using the library catalog has ensured the long-term sustainability of the resource as the library is committed to maintaining the records in the collection. Catalog records can be searched using keywords along with controlled searching by author, title and subject. During the initial phase of the 4. Tis list can be downloaded. project, the library and researcher produced a listing of terms to ensure Normally, the library uses Library of Congress subject headings, but as this consistency of use and phraseology.4 Tese subject terms are added to would have limited available terms, it a specifc local subject feld, thus allowing greater freedom to express was agreed to deviate from this practice for this collection. themes. Genre terms such as Historical fction, Romance fction and

32 Readerships and Literary Cultures 1900 - 1950 Special Colledlon Cataloguing Form

Fields marked with an asteri sk are essential. literary and cultural taste ; (quotations from the novel which ment1on books, newspapers, plays, films, authors and reading, or mention high, low, or middlebrows). Please give page •Your name: numbers .

*Your contact details (email address OR postal address):

•Book autho r:

*Book title:

Book review: *Place of publishing, publisher and date: (eg. London: Harper and Brothe rs, 1908) What did you think of the novel? You could consider how your modern reading might have differed from that of the original readers. With your permission this review may be posted •First edition: YES/NO on the blog http://reading19001950.wordpress.com/ Up to 1,000 words

•If this is not a first edition give publisher and date of first edition: (eg. First published by Chatto and Windus 1927)

•Genre: {choose up to thr ee from the list)

•subject keywords: {choose up to fiv e from the list)

Film adaptations: (eg. This novel was made into a film of the same title in 1923. Details of films can be found at www.imdb.com)

Evidence of ownership: (eg. This book was previo usly owned by t he Victoria Sailors' and Working Men' s Club, Bridlington : Book No 268. OR Inscription: C. W. Moo rley)

Advertisements/marke t ing: (eg. Includes a catalogue of Messrs Blackwood and Sons publications at t he back of the book)

Plot summary: (up to 200 words. This should be factual, and preferably not give away the ending. Use the book review section to say what you thought of t he book I)

Figure 1. Catalog template. Image courtesy of Humanities Research Centre, Shefeld Hallam University.

Detective fction were mostly Library of Congress terms, with a few variations. Additionally, the library created a specifc location search scope so users could limit search results to this specifc collection. Te inclusion of quotations from the novel to indicate literary and cultural taste formed a particular challenge for the catalog. We wanted the names of authors and texts mentioned in the novels to be searchable, but clearly it was not possible to put whole quotations on the record. Also, while the names of authors quoted should be searchable it should be clear to the catalog user that the record returned is not a book by that author. Te solution we found was to put the list of authors and texts mentioned in a notes feld with the entry beginning with the phrase “this novel contains literary and cultural references to…”. Te quotations themselves were put in a Word document which linked to the record. Over 200 books in the collection now have this enhanced cataloging, forming a signifcant research resource.

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Did you mean gilbert frank 7 Other suggastlon s » 20 results found. Sorted by relevan ce I dJte I title . Resultpa11e: . Previo us reco rd Niutreco rd. Name Fronktu , Gilbert, 188'1•1952. Title Chr isto ph er Str o ng : a rom ;,m;e / Gilbert Fniinkiiu . Published Londoo : Hutchinson, [1932) Pages, Etc 384 p. 20cm. Notes This novel was made Into a film of the same title in 1933, starring Katharine Hepbum. In the film Lady Felicity isanaviator,ratherthanaracinQcardriver. Acopyof thistitleis held In the Readerships and Literary Cultures collection. Summary Sir Christopher Strong Is a wealthy, Conserv ative member of Par1Iament, the Controlling Partner in the 'John Strong, Grocer' chain of shops and a middle -aged family man. He finds hlmself Irresistibly attracted to the vitality of the youn11 adventurous Lady Felicity Danirll!ton, a celebrated radn11 car driver. Catalysed by a motw race, Christopher and Felicity finally acknowled11e their love for each other. Althou11h both share a commitment tosin11le-minded endeavour,sheservestofreethelon11repressedyo uthlnhisperso nalitywhitstheappears tofulfi l herneedforsecureloveandnurture.The resultln11extramarltala ffalrdestablllsesnotonly Christopher·sordered business-driven respectabilityl>utalsothesingularityofFelidty"srisk·d rivenli festyle. This pro11ressively threatens both their careers and Christophe r' s marrla11e. However, what remains of paramount importance to both is the sparin11 of any distress to Deirdre, Christopher·s wife. Meanwhile Deirdre, havin11 been aware of their love for each other from the start, silendy stru1111leswith Jealousy and feeli n11sof abandonment throu11h self-sacrifice and prayer. The ramifications of this romantic entan11lement are examined a11alnsta bacli:11round ofthevarietyofapproachestaken byC hristopher"sfamllyandcollea11uesto!ife and love. Notes Contains lite rary and cultural references to: newspapers indudin11 The T1mes,The Soy"s Own Paper, The Momin11 Post, The New York Times, The Herald Tr ibune, The Laketown Free News, The Tele11raph, The Observer. The Sunday Times; and a Van Dine Det ective Story. See attached documen t for deta!ls.

Go to literary and cultural references

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subject Romantic fiction. Subject MascuUnity Keywords Adultery Aristocracy Marria11e Motorradn11 Name Frankau, GUb&rt, 1884-1952. sub·ect no 828 FrankauG

Figure 2. A catalog record. Image courtesy of Humanities Research Centre, Shefeld Hallam University

Reviews documenting contemporary reader responses are a key part of the collection project, along with enhanced cataloging. Readers are asked to consider how their response might difer from the original readers, and why. For example, in the case of Gilbert Frankau, those characteristics that made him a consistent bestseller in the early twentieth century did not make him popular with modern readers of our groups. His novel Royal Regiment (1938) was described by one of our readers as a “cure for insomnia,” and most others fared only a little better. Tese reviews are posted to a blog. Tis blog, rather than being aimed at librarians or academics, is written for general readership and receives more views than our academic-facing Middlebrow Network site.

Many donors have found out about the collection through the blog, and it brings us into conversation with people from around the world who are similarly interested in these books and the era’s literary scene.5

Project Impact

Te Readerships and Literary Cultures 1900-1950 project formed a 5. Te blog holds over 200 book reviews, and since its launch has key part of Shefeld Hallam’s English department submission to the received over 67,000 page views. It has 229 email followers and Research Excellence Framework in 2014. Tis system for assessing another 186 on twitter.

Building a Special Collection of Popular and Middlebrow Fiction, 1900-1950 | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 34 the quality of research in UK higher education institutions breaks 6. http://www.ref.ac.uk/about/ Outputs are weighted at 65%, research into three components: Outputs, Research Environment, and Environment at 15% and Impact Impact. Departments are required to submit Impact Case Studies, is 20% of the overall assessment. which demonstrate the impact their research has had outside academia.6 Alongside academic outputs, project activities of reading groups, public lectures, flm screenings, and blog and social media presence were designed with the need to document this Case Study in mind. Tis system of assessing research has had the efect of making universities more systematic in their public engagement activities, and more rigorous in their documentation and evaluation of them. In the collection project, as well as having an efect on the wider world, we needed to be able to evidence this with quantitative and qualitative data. Te blog, in particular, was invaluable in reaching out to the public and in giving them the opportunity to discuss the books with us. Te comments function allows lively conversations to take place, and helpfully for the researcher, all comments are recorded for future reference. Trough the blog statistics we can see how many people have visited and where in the world they reside: 51% of visits are from the UK, and 49% are international, with 32% consisting of visits from the US, Canada and Australia, and 17% from the rest of the world. Tis international engagement is a delightful development, only made possible by web-based activities. Te most signifcant impact of the project has been on the reading group members. Rather than being passive recipients of knowledge

Oorothyl. Say~rsEd'.vard Sa:kville-West EH 9 thoughts on "The Castle on the Hill by Elizabeth YoungEir.orMordauntEhzaoettlT")'lor Goudge (1942)" Elizabeth van Arnim Ethel M. Dell Family fiction family 0 kaggsysbooklshrambllngssays: saga feminism Femin "st fiction First !'"a Apn19,2014o1112:2spm(fdi1' World War novels"'".°''" Tricky-what work1 well m children's literature may not be so good in adult books. Certainly, it does seem as ff Goudge will be love or hate. Germany Gilbert Frankau Henry

Repty Wilhamson HerbertJenk1n, historical fiction ho,,o, Encasays: fictron Howard Spring Hu&h Wapole April 11 2014at l:lSam(Editl humorous fiction i,ycompto,. I wouldn't want to put you off Goudge! As the comments show, other people have very different responses to her adult novels. eurrtr:J, 8. Priestley jack London John BuchanJut,4Frankau libraries Marg!fySho,rpM11zodeJaRoche

melodramatic fiction M

ruraJfirnon rural novels satire Er1casays: April 11, 2014at l1:17am(Edit) science f iction SU stories Second ~ Custar Glad you enjoyed the review Scott, even though our reader took a different View! I am World War Secondwor ld wa, -

Figure 3. Comments on the blog. Image courtesy of Humanities Research Centre, Shefeld Hallam University.

35 disseminated by the researcher, as might be the case in a traditional public lecture, reading group members became co-producers of research. At intervals we asked them what efect the process of coming to the reading groups and completing the enhanced cataloging had on them. Tere was a signifcant development in their critical thinking, skills, and knowledge: “I read more consciously, am more refective on what I read and do learn more.” “I am learning to trust my opinions and fnd evidence to support them.” “I am far more focused and analytical.” We found there was great enthusiasm for the project in Shefeld, perhaps surprising in a city stereotyped as not particularly bookish. We quickly expanded the reading group to two groups, and there was a waiting list to join throughout the project. For the Impact Case Study, work with the public is only considered impactful if it is underpinned by research produced by the institution. We had a strong base of publications in the feld when we began, but as the project developed, work with the public fed into our scholarship, making this a process of knowledge exchange. Eight members of the reading group attended the collection academic conference Culture Wars 1900-1950 in June, 2014, and contributed signifcantly to the debate. Te researcher wrote an article, “Te Rise and Fall of ‘the original Bright Young Ting:’ Beverley Nichols, Crazy Pavements (1927) and Popular Authorship,” which developed out of the intertextual data collected for the enhanced catalog record. Tis was also an example of the strength of having a physical collection for research; until the Nichols novel was received as a donation, the researcher had never heard of it so would not otherwise have done this research. Tis is the frst scholarly article on this culturally important but now forgotten author.

Conclusion

Overall with the collection there are many benefts to having the material objects, from the evidence of ownership and reception, to the joys of being able to browse the shelves and come across authors you would not have known to seek out. Online, enhanced cataloging means that we have also created an electronic resource that can be used remotely by scholars across the world. Te experience of working with the general public ofers both an example of successful impact, and demonstrates how members of the public can contribute to collection development and research. It has also been extremely rewarding for everyone involved. As funding for the researcher has come to an end, members of the reading group have carried on meeting to read the forgotten novels of 1900-1950 independently, and are continuing to share their reading responses on the blog.

36 References

Brown, E. (2015). Te Rise and Fall of ‘the original Bright Young Ting’: Beverley Nichols, Crazy Pavements (1927) and Popular Authorship. Review of English Studies, 66, 144-163. doi:10.1093/res/hgu057.

Frankau, P. (1961). Pen to Paper, A Novelist’s Notebook. London: Heinemann.

Leavis, Q. D. (1932; 2000). Fiction and the Reading Public. London: Pimlico.

Shefeld Hallam University (2014). Impact (REF3a/b), 29 - English Language and Literature. Retrieved from Research Excellence Framework website: http://results.ref.ac.uk/Submissions/Impact/473

37 Training the Next Generation: Best Practices in Student Training at the University of California, Riverside Libraries

Sarah M. Allison, New Mexico State University

Author Note:

Sarah Allison, Special Collections Librarian, New Mexico State University.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to: Sarah Allison, New Mexico State University, Branson Library, MSC 3475, PO Box 30006, Las Cruces, NM 88003.

Contact: [email protected]

Training the Next Generation: Best Practices in Student Training at the University of California, Riverside Libraries | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 38 Abstract

From 2010 to 2014, the University of California, Riverside Libraries Special Collections & Archives Department developed and implemented a student employees training program with a focus on education and expectations. Tis paper discusses the best practices used to develop student employees’ “soft skills” in addition to training them to be integral members of the daily operations of the department.

Keywords: Academic Libraries, Archives, Special Collections, Student Hiring, Student Employees, Training Program

Training the Next Generation: Best Practices in Student Training at the University of California, Riverside Libraries | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 39 Training the Next Generation: Best Practices in Student Training at the University of California, Riverside Libraries

Sarah M. Allison, New Mexico State University

Academic libraries routinely entrust student employees with daily library services and tasks, ensuring the consistency of library operations. With the decrease in recent years of support staf positions and widespread budgetary reductions, student assistants are hired and trained to develop specialized skill sets in order to fulfll the responsibilities that had previously been assigned to full time paraprofessional and professional staf. In addition, academic libraries within the structure of higher education have a responsibility to assist in the educational process of undergraduate students. Given the uniqueness of special collections’ materials and the range of services performed, such departments function as a “mini-library,” with student employees serving on the front lines and behind-the-scenes. Some departments have processing units for newly cataloged material, minimal level archival processing and basic preservation needs. Additionally, special collections departments provide regular public service functions. In many cases, desks are stafed by student employees who feld and answer informational and basic reference questions. Tis is one of many aspects of a special collections department that creates an environment somewhat separate from the library as a whole. Because special collections departments rely so heavily on student employees, supervising and managing them can pose many challenges. Much of the professional literature suggests creating a “game plan.”

Training the Next Generation: Best Practices in Student Training at the University of California, Riverside Libraries | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 40 Dunlap (2007) suggests developing goals and objectives for a student training program, stating “[G]oals serve as a guide by providing direction for the training and development process and should be closely aligned to support the organization’s mission” (p. 9). In the Special Collections & Archives Department at the University of California, Riverside (UCR), paraprofessional and professional staf discussed goals regarding what the department expected from the student employees, in addition to what the student employees might gain from employment within the library. At the time UCR Special Collections & Archives Department provided access to more than 400,000 books, including the Vernon Duke Collection on Paris, an extensive History of the Book Collection, and the Eaton Collection of Science Fiction & Fantasy, then world’s largest publicly-accessible collection of science fction, fantasy, horror and utopian literature. It also comprised more than 6000 linear feet of archival collections including the Citrus Experiment Station, Tomas Rivera Archive, the Tuskegee Airmen Archive, the Sabino Osuna Photographic Archive of the Mexican Revolution, and the Paraguayan political archives. In 2011, fnancial constraints at the University resulted in the downsizing of the department. Two professional positions and one paraprofessional position were lost to retirement and transfer, leaving the department to operate with two professionals, one 1.0 FTE paraprofessional, and one .50 FTE paraprofessional. Additionally, do due to reduction in Work Study funds, the student employee pool had been smaller than it had been before 2010. During these four years the department employed only seven to nine federal work study students. As the leading research collection of science fction and fantasy, the Eaton Collection served as the major educational resource for the English, Comparative Literature, and Media departments at UCR. Both undergraduate and graduate students conducted research in the department, as did international scholars, Science Fiction fans, and general “SCI-FI” enthusiasts. Many undergraduate English course would assign students to read comic books from the Eaton Collections. During those courses, seats in the Reading Room were in short supply, so students were required to sign a waiting list or schedule in advance for access to the course materials. On a monthly average anywhere from 81 to 140 patrons visited the Reading Room and student employees completed, on average, 250 to 400 reproductions a month. Before 2010, student employees were divided among diferent units within the department. Tere were Public Service/Stacks Maintenance students, Preservation students, and Archival students, supervised and reviewed by a member of the staf within that section of the unit. Tis created mini silos within the department where student employees had

Training the Next Generation: Best Practices in Student Training at the University of California, Riverside Libraries | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 41 diferent expectations and standards for their work. Students who did not serve on the information desk had more leeway with their schedules. In addition, expectations towards the quality of work were not uniform among supervisors. As the department underwent stafng changes through retirements, transfers and layofs, there was a need to reorganize student employee time and duties. Discussion about goals and needs continued among the department staf, leading to the resolution to develop a better interviewing process and training program, and to establish defned expectations and standards for student employees. Preparing undergraduate students for the workforce after college was also a key element of training and supervision. Following the suggestions, techniques and strategies given in the professional literature, this paper discusses the design and best practices used in successfully implementing the hiring and training program at the University of California, Riverside Special Collections & Archives beginning in 2010.

Advantages of Mentoring Student Employees

Mentoring, whether formally or informally, is an important element of student supervision. As librarians, we set examples and expectations that could be advantageous to a student employee and the profession as a whole. Much of the literature acknowledges the need for student employees in academic libraries to conduct daily activities. Reale (2013) states that it is within the best interest of libraries to train their students well, not only in the art of service, but as young adults who will soon enter and face the actual work world themselves. As library professionals we partner with the educational process and the time and efort invested in mentoring reaps benefts for both student employees and librarians (p.1). In a survey conducted by Maxey-Harries, Cross, and McFarland (2010) on the educational experience of professional library staf, ffty percent of the respondents had “previous experience as a student worker at a college or university library” (p.152). As Reale suggests, “[I]f we, as academic librarians and other paraprofessionals, are working side by side with students day in and day out, we have to seize the opportunity to help them along in their job and what would be so terrible if a few who were helped along the way actually became interested in the changing feld of library science” (p. 3). Mentoring and providing a work environment similar to the actual working world could instill motivation and personal fulfllment in the student, while also bringing new life to a “graying” profession. It would be reasonable to suggest that many undergraduate students have one goal in mind-- to graduate from college. However, mentoring

Training the Next Generation: Best Practices in Student Training at the University of California, Riverside Libraries | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 42 can give the student direction and a sense of achievement, while simultaneously maintaining an efcient workfow in the department. Sweetman (2007) suggests that having an interest in the job is a better form of motivation than incentives and rewards (p. 123). Giving student employees ownership over their recommendations and ideas can stimulate enthusiasm for the job. To create such an environment Sweetman recommends librarians engage student employees at all levels of expertise in conversation pertaining to their job responsibilities (p. 124). While there is a substantial investment of time in involving students in discussions, there are benefts to the students, the library, and ultimately the profession. Tese benefts more than justify time invested. After 2010, student employees at UCR became a more integral part of the department, recognized for their contributions to providing enhanced access to materials and better service for researchers. Te direct supervisor schedule monthly meetings to communicate past and upcoming activities and projects within the department and library. Student employees participated in the department’s social media campaign, in addition to providing feedback about current policies and procedures. Since these student employees interacted with the public and were the key operators of the day-to-day department functions, their input was very important.

Specialized Needs of a Special Collections Department

Many students entering a special collections department lack the experience and understanding of such a department. According to Wiener (2010), “[I]n the case of undergraduate students, it is very unlikely that entering students will also come with any sort of knowledge of what an archival institution is, what it does, or what types of work takes place within its confnes. Tis presents a particularly unique challenge when one is trying to train a student about a task which is unfamiliar in purpose, signifcance, or meaning” (p. 59). While a special collections department is typically placed within an academic library, there are often vast diferences in holdings, daily services, tasks, and needs in such a department. To maximize the training process and the skills of an incoming student employee, it is important for the student to have a comprehensive understanding of the specialized nature and purpose of a special collections department. Te uniqueness of rare, specialized, and archival material requires adjustments in traditional library duties, such as public service and stacks maintenance tasks. Given that material within a special collection does not circulate, traditional check-in/checkout procedures, informational and reference tasks are modifed in an efort to balance access with

Training the Next Generation: Best Practices in Student Training at the University of California, Riverside Libraries | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 43 preservation of the collection. Such tasks may seem similar to those performed in an Access Services or Reference department, but standard procedures throughout academic libraries do not always apply in such a department. As for UCR, the department developed two ways of communicating the specialized nature and purpose of a special collection through a detailed job description and interviewing process before a student employee was even hired. Once UCR hired a student, he or she participated in information and preservation training sessions before working with or around the material.

Student Employee Job Description

When developing a student employee training program there is, frst and foremost, a need for staf to convey a clear understanding of the needs of a special collections department. Te optimal student employee training program requires a detailed job description, defned hiring practices, and durable training modules. In creating the job description, the UCR staf surveyed and evaluated the tasks that needed to be completed by student employees. Many of the tasks had already been assigned to student employees; however, documentation of expectations, duties and responsibilities, training tools, and delivery format were either limited or non-existent. Starting in 2010, UCR created a new job description and interview procedures to outline the needs of student employees in the department, along with a revised student employee manual, and a student employee guidelines and standards form. Tolppanen and Derr’s (2009) survey of academic libraries Access Service departments identifed nineteen core tasks student employees performed, such as check-in/checkout, patron assistance away from the circulation desk, and equipment maintenance (p.316). Depending on the policies and procedures of a special collections department, additional steps may need to be taken into account. For example, instructing the patron on why they are asked to place personal bags in a locker and show photo identifcation. Sweetman (2007) also recommends that job descriptions include specifc, measureable tasks that the student employee will be responsible for carrying out (p. 48). Given the specialized needs of the department, the following bullet points –which echoed the UCR Special Collections policies and procedures—address specifc job responsibilities:

» Provides professional and timely service to researchers, faculty, students, and staf;

Training the Next Generation: Best Practices in Student Training at the University of California, Riverside Libraries | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 44 » Follow basic procedures for the careful handling and preservation of rare materials;

» Monitors the Special Collections & Archives Reading Room;

» Ensures security and safety of Special Collections & Archives material being used;

» Processes rare materials/books for Special Collections & Archives;

» Pages and shelves books and archival collections within a complex shelf arrangement;

» Accurately and clearly types detailed information on fags, and folders;

» Completes reproduction requests for rare books and archival material, following all policies and procedures;

» Uses a fatbed and overhead scanner to create digital images of photographic prints and documents;

» Rehouses and labels containers for manuscripts and university archives in accordance with archival standards;

» Assists with collection maintenance tasks such as shifting, shelf reading, labeling, and keeping areas organized;

» Assists librarians and other supervisors with special projects;

» Other duties or special projects as assigned.

For a more detailed job description please see Appendix 1.

Hiring Student Employees

Academic libraries have general interviewing questions, many of which are tailored to an access services or circulation department. Tere is a need for additional explication when it comes to working in a special collections department. Providing information at the beginning of an interview helps a supervisor correct any misunderstanding or misconceptions about working in such a department. During this process the interviewee can decide if special collections is in fact a place where he or she would like

Training the Next Generation: Best Practices in Student Training at the University of California, Riverside Libraries | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 45 to work (Reale p.7). At the same time, an interviewee’s responses and demeanor help the supervisor evaluate the ability of the student to interact with a patron and communicate efectively. At UCR the revised student interview process after 2010 consisted of twelve boilerplate questions, and an introductory paragraph that provided the interviewee with a clear defnition of the diference between general library operations and that of a special collections department:

Special Collections & Archives is a little diferent than the rest of the library. It houses rare books, manuscripts, and archival materials. Our holdings do not circulate, but may be used in the departmental reading room. Tis involves more security than the rest of the library. Tis position has many diferent responsibilities from monitoring the reading room to processing rare materials, shelving books and archives, and interacting with patrons in person or over the phone. Student employees work when the library is open even if the campus is not in session such as, the summer, and over the Christmas break and spring break (Allison p.1).

Training Student Employees

To ensure quality work and long-term service, training is the next and most crucial step of student employee management. As Farrell and Driver (2010) suggest, scheduling meetings with student employees allows them to ask questions, to get to know their co-workers, and to develop a better understanding of library policies and procedures (p. 189). Tis creates and fulflls a need for a participatory style of training that should be conducted throughout the supervision of the student employee. A supervisor must maintain a level of organization, documentation and commitment of time while supervising student employees. Additionally, a supervisor must possess time management skills, particularly the ability to multi-task. As Connell and Mileham (2006) discuss, training student employees demands an ongoing commitment of time and efort, but ongoing training allows student employees to refect on what they have learned, encouraging retention of knowledge versus a one-shot session (p. 81-2). Development of a training checklist may be the best form of documentation and organization for both a supervisor and student employee. Te checklist should include every task a student employee needs to learn to be a successful member of the department (Sweetman p.89). With student employees, it is important to remember that their studies will and always should come frst. Teir schedules may not allow

Training the Next Generation: Best Practices in Student Training at the University of California, Riverside Libraries | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 46 a time to work two consecutive days in a row. Providing student employees with a checklist helps them visualize their progress and accomplishments.

Hiring Packet

Given the fact that most undergraduate students have never worked in a library and that many students are hired for their frst job while in college, providing student employees with library and departmental information is a necessity. Farrell and Driver (2010) discuss this briefy and refer to it as providing an “insider’s view of the operation of the library and introductions to each faculty and staf member, including a short description of the staf member’s job responsibilities” (p.189). Furthermore, Sweetman (2007) suggests including an orientation with an overview of the library and an explanation of how student employees’ tasks directly ft into the mission of the department and the library (p.87). UCR developed a new student employee hiring packet to be presented to new student employees on their frst day of employment. It included a welcome letter from their supervisor with a list of the material within the packet. Tis provided the students with information available to them throughout their training, and gave each student a sense of acceptance within the department. Te packet included the student employee guidelines contract, guidelines and procedures manual, evaluation standards, emergency procedures, and the training checklist.

Format and Delivery

Manley and Holley (2014) state training tutorials should be created in two diferent formats, voice-over PowerPoint presentations and demonstration video clips (p. 82). Whereas Sweetman (2007) outlines a “show and tell” method to training, stating “when training a student, make sure to show him or her how to do the task at hand, and explain the context for what they will be doing. People tend to retain what they are taught if they are given a context of why various steps are important” (p. 93). A combination of these two suggestions creates a theoretical and practical approach to training, with continual opportunities for conversation. Te UCR special collections department training program approached this style of training through nine diferent sections. A majority of these sections began with a PowerPoint lecture (delivered by the unit head) and moved to hands-on training sessions. Videos about security, reading room procedures, and stack maintenance provided a visual learning component. Most of the hands-on training sessions used special collection material, or role playing interactions. For example, training was conducted through

Training the Next Generation: Best Practices in Student Training at the University of California, Riverside Libraries | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 47 the physical handling, rehousing, and retrieving of material, and student employees participated in “pseudo patron” interactions, in person or over the telephone.

Cross Training Needs

Cross training of student employees can provide a department with employees able to perform multiple tasks. At UCR, the student employees were cross-trained to work in all areas of the department, beginning with mostly project-based work with the collection. Tis allowed student employees to gain a better understanding of the material within the department and provided them with the tools to deliver a higher level of reference service. In addition, cross training provided the department with multiple backups for Public Service needs including minimal reference and/ or retrievals. Draper, Oswald, and Renfro (2007) discuss the beneft of cross training student employees, stating “because of the cross training, students do not get bored with their jobs and the library has a bigger pool of students to choose from when having to schedule a public service desk” (p. 137). Tis echoes Sweetman’s (2007) sentiment that engagement of student employees raises their interest level. Cross training has the added beneft of giving student employees the opportunity to acquire new skills and learn new techniques, while providing a needed function to the department and the library.

Training Checklist

Implemented in the fall of 2010, UCR developed the following nine sections that facilitate the new student employee1 training module: 1. Administration 2. Security 3. Preservation 4. Stacks Maintenance 5. Reproductions 6. Archival Training 7. Acquisitions and ILS Training 8. Processing 1. For purposes of clarity, student 9. Public Service Training employees will be referred to as employees throughout the rest of the article

Training the Next Generation: Best Practices in Student Training at the University of California, Riverside Libraries | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 48 Te direct student supervisor, support staf member and professional staf responsible for a specifc unit within the department conducted the corresponding training section. Given the number of employees hired at one time and depending on their school schedules, new employees often moved through the training together. After a training section was completed, new employees were paired with senior employees to work together, the newer ones shadowing the seniors. For example, a new employee was paired with a senior employee for an hour a day to work on shelving after completing the stack maintenance section. Te senior employee observed the new employee, making sure that proper handling and shelving techniques were being followed. Eventually, the department hoped to move towards a tiered student employee structure, similar to other UC Access Services departments (student assistant 1 and 2), allowing for senior employees to conduct the training sections and oversee new employees. Below are summaries of the training sections. For an example of the training checklist please see Appendix 2.0. Te frst section of training was an informational session between the direct supervisor and the new student employee. During this session the new employee received the hiring packet, a tour of the department, met the department head, and reviewed department websites (both public and internal), including the department blog where projects, schedules and announcements were placed, along with the opening and closing procedures and other ofce needs. Te second section, security, was developed to provide new employees with information pertaining to the security guidelines suggested by the Association of College and Research Libraries Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (ACRL/RBMS) Security Committee. In this section, the focus was on security procedures and why UCR’s Special Collections & Archives conducts policies and procedures in such a manner. In the Preservation section, the Preservationist trained new employees on the proper techniques of handling special collections material. Tis training was considered a high priority given that such tasks as stacks maintenance, reproductions orders, processing and public service could not be conducted without this basic understanding. It was also an educational tool to help employees build their confdence in following the policies and procedures to be a contributing member of the department. Section four, stacks maintenance, was developed to train new employees to understand and locate Library of Congress call numbers within the stacks. In addition, staf provided defnitions and specifc reasons why such tasks and shelving, shelf reading, and shifting needed to be completed, all linking back to the department goals of access and preservation.

Training the Next Generation: Best Practices in Student Training at the University of California, Riverside Libraries | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 49 Reproductions are key to providing access and public service to a collection, however, preservation is a more important priority. In section fve, an employee used the skills gained in the preservation section and continued to build on his or her understanding as to what material can and cannot be reproduced, he or she became capable of explaining, with confdence, the reasoning behind the department’s reproduction policies. In section six, the employee received hands-on-training and worked directly with the department archivist. To reinforce key training lessons, new employees were assigned paging requests for archival material during their shift. A senior employee shadowed the new employee to ensure he or she conducted the process properly. Additionally each new employee received an archival project within the frst few months of employment. In section seven, the training program was to work directly with the Integrated Library System (ILS). Employees learned the diferent searching options, location codes, and identifying key notes or messages within records. Te employee was assigned a search project using recent donations to the collection. Such a project provided employees an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the ILS system. At the conclusion of this training and project employees were skilled enough to handle the frst level of reference, limiting the need for assistance from professional staf. Section eight focused on processing newly cataloged special collections material. Consisting mostly of books, employees implemented techniques and skills learned from other sections of training during the processing of new material. For example, the employees were expected to identify preservation concerns when an item arrived, such as the need for an enclosure. Since employees were the frst to see new material entering the department, their understanding of the collection was once again enhanced, contributing to the goal of providing access. Te fnal section, public service built on the skills learned in sections one through eight and summarized the workfows to facilitate efective public service within the department. Each new employee shadowed a senior employee at the information desk. Tis gave the new employee a chance to conduct observations and to ask questions of their peers. Senior employees conducted role playing scenarios and reference interviews with the new employee. If a professional staf member was available, he or she would take part in a scenario. For more detail on the training section please see Appendix 3.0. Te amount of time spent on this training depended on the individual employee and his or her personal abilities. However, at this point in the program all of the employees were very excited to move to the information desk, hoping to test what they had learned through their training and to prove what they had accomplished.

Training the Next Generation: Best Practices in Student Training at the University of California, Riverside Libraries | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 50 Communication

Training requires both theory and practice and these elements cannot be conducted without some form of communication. Te tools to provide training and ongoing management required a level of communication between the employee, his or her direct supervisor, and the department staf. Power (2011) states that training is about communication, which evolves, and training programs must adapt to successfully enrich communication between professional staf and student employees (p.69). At UCR, most of this training was completed via paper or through hands- on practice. However, as the department’s professional staf became busier with other duties, communication with student employees needed to be improved. Jetton (2009) mentions the use of proper distribution methods for training material. “Distribution methods that were reviewed included traditional paper materials, shared folders or directories on a library server, staf Web page, document-management software, blogs and wikis, and course-management software” (p. 24). Following this model, the department utilized a staf intranet webpage to provide electronic access to all training material, along with all needed tools for daily duties of student employees. Further, the establishment of a department blog streamlined communication for projects and department schedules. Tis tool was very useful in continuing a level of communication between student employees and professional staf. Tere were limitations and restrictions with this form of communication. Both Jetton (2009) and Power (2011) state the use of a course management system could be useful. Jetton suggests that courseware can provide tools needed for training, such as built-in student assessment or quizzes (p. 26). Power (2011) states that using Blackboard for training, documentation and communication centralizes the use of technology already used by students (p.70). While this had not been implemented in Special Collections & Archives at UCR, such tools could continue to improve communication and training between staf and student employees through the profession.

Outcomes of the Training

At the beginning of 2015, a survey was sent to employees who had worked in the UCR Special Collections & Archives Department for the entire four years of their college education, i.e., from 2010 to 2014. Of the eight employees who worked in the department, six answered the survey regarding their experience with the training program. All six respondents indicated

Training the Next Generation: Best Practices in Student Training at the University of California, Riverside Libraries | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 51 they liked the format of training. When asked to describe what they liked about the training a respondent stated, “[I]t was a gradual process from shelving to working the front desk.” Another respondent also mentioned this gradual move forward and commented on how it allowed each of them to become really good at one task before moving on to another aspect of their work. Te respondents also mentioned their fondness for the structure and organization, stating, “I knew exactly what, why and how I was supposed to complete a task and also I knew what I had to learn next.” Another mentioned the educational aspect of having meetings to discuss the training required to complete certain tasks of working in a special collections department and why that training was important and extremely helpful. Not only did the student employees learn the duties of their job, they also learned the importance and meaning behind working in such a department. In addition to the training, all the respondents believed they were members of the department’s staf. Tis was key for student-staf communication, but, more importantly, it added to the development and confdence of the student employees. All respondents felt that being a member and working in the department gave them a better understanding of the library as a whole. Several faculty members and visiting researchers commented on the excellent service they received from the department after 2010. One faculty member, a frequent visitor, commented in an e-mail to the head of Special Collections & Archives, that after 2010, “student staf became much more organized and professional, clearly much better prepared. Te student supervisor did a truly outstanding job of orienting and overseeing the staf.” From the supervisor’s perspective, retention of student employees was higher and quality of work improved between 2010 and 2014. Student employees had pride in their own job performance and in the overall performance of the department. Tey were members of the department and communication improved among the professional staf and student employees.

Conclusion

While this training program was specifc to the Special Collections & Archives Department at the University of California, Riverside Libraries, it drew from other peer reviewed training programs and could be adapted to beneft other organizations. Student employees will continue to be a valuable resource in the daily operations of libraries. As Reale (2013) states, “[O]ften, we can get caught up in our own sense of importance and in the satisfying idea of being able to positively infuence students, but as my own boss, in her infnite wisdom, consistently reminds me and my colleagues, ‘It’s not about us.’ And while we know that, it doesn’t hurt to be reminded” (p. 43). Te function of the academic

Training the Next Generation: Best Practices in Student Training at the University of California, Riverside Libraries | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 52 libraries within the educational profession --whether through instructional 2. Te direct supervisor left in 2014 for a professional position. It sessions, information literacy seminars, or student employment-- is to is unclear whether this program is provide information and access to aid in the development of skills for the still being implemented. next generation, and this applies in particular to the students in our own institutions. Requiring students to follow work schedules, learn useful skills, and meet expectations will give them an edge in fnding a place in the workforce once they graduate, or even help guide them in choosing a satisfying career. In some cases, we can hope, that the career they chose will be in the feld of library and information science.2

Training the Next Generation: Best Practices in Student Training at the University of California, Riverside Libraries | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 53 References

Allison, S. M. (2010). Interviewing Questions for Special Collections & Archives Students.Unpublished manuscript.

Connell, R. S., & Mileham, P. J. (2006). Student assistant training in a small academic library. Public Services Quarterly, 2(2/3), 69-84.

Draper, L.H., & Oswald, T. A., Renfro, M. (2007). Student workers: Cross training in the academic environment. Journal of Access Services, 5(1/2), 133-37.

Dunlap, L. (2007). A game plan for student employee orientation. Arkansas Libraries, 64(3), 9-11.

Farrell, S. L., & Driver, C. (2010). Tag, you’re it: Hiring, training, and managing student assistants. Community & Junior College Libraries, 16, 185-191.

Guidelines for the security of rare books, manuscripts, and other special collections. (2009). College & Research Libraries News, 70(10), 593-604.

Jetton, L.L. (2009). Selecting and using technology for student training. Technical Service Quarterly, 26(1), 21-35.

Manley, L., & Holley, R. P. (2014). Hiring and training work-study students: A case study. College & Undergraduate Libraries, 21(1), 76-89.

Maxey-Harris, C., & Cross, J., McFarland, T. (2010). Student workers: Te untapped resource for library professions. Library Trends, 59(1/2), 147-165.

Power, J.L. (2011). Training 2.0–Library assistant in the age of information. Journal of Access Services, 8, 69-79.

Reale, M. (2013). Mentoring & Managing Students in the Academic Library. Chicago: American Library Association.

Sweetman, K.B. (2007). Managing student assistants. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc.

Tolppanen, B.P., & Derr, J. (2009). A survey of the duties and job performance of student assistants in access services. Journal of Access Services, 6(3), 313-323. doi:10.1080/15367960902894138

Wiener, J. A. (2010). Easing the learning curve: Te creation of digital learning objects for use in special collections student training. Provenance: Te Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists, 28, 58-81.

Training the Next Generation: Best Practices in Student Training at the University of California, Riverside Libraries | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 54 Appendixes

1.0: Job Description Student employee Job Description for Special Collections & Archives

Under the supervision of the Reading Room Coordinator and Ofce Manager, incumbent learns the policies and procedures established by the UCR libraries Special Collections & Archives (SC&A) for working with rare books and archival materials. Te schedule for this position is Monday through Friday between the hours of 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Students hired to work in SC&A must commit to working summers and during Spring Break.

Te student performs the following routine tasks:

» Provides professional and timely service to researcher, faculty, students, and staf;

» Follow basic procedures for the careful handling and preservation of rare materials;

» Monitors the Reading Room and Costo Room;

» Ensures security and safety of SC&A materials being used;

» Processes rare materials/books for SC&A;

» Pages and shelves books and archival collections within complex shelf arrangement systems;

» Accurately and clearly types or writes detailed information on fags, and folders;

» Performs basic searches on the online public access catalogues Millennium (SCOTTY) and MELVYL;

» Completes reproduction requests for rare books and archival material, following all policies and procedures;

» Uses a fatbed and overhead scanner to create digital images of photographic prints and documents;

» Rehouses and label containers for manuscripts and university archives in accordance with archival standards;

Training the Next Generation: Best Practices in Student Training at the University of California, Riverside Libraries | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 55 » Assists with collection maintenance tasks such as shifting, shelf reading, labeling, and keeping areas organized;

» Assist librarians and other supervisors with special projects;

» Other duties or special projects as assigned.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

Strong interpersonal skills with ability to work successfully in an intensely collaborative environment with a broad range of people from culturally diverse backgrounds including colleagues, administrators, students, faculty, donors, and alumni;

» Ability to perform semi-skilled clerical work (typing, fling, etc.);

» Ability to arrange materials by Library of Congress call numbers;

» Ability to perform repetitive tasks accurately;

» Ability to safely handle rare materials;

» Ability to perform some manual labor, including shelving books and boxes of up to 25 lbs, carrying supplies, light maintenance and custodial tasks, and shifting of collections;

» Ability to do basic searches on the online public access catalogues Millennium (SCOTTY) and MELVYL;

» Ability to operate computers, printers, and scanners;

» Computer skills sufcient to work with word processing and database software;

» Public or customer service experience is highly desirable

Training the Next Generation: Best Practices in Student Training at the University of California, Riverside Libraries | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 56 Student Employee: Hire Before Winter Spring End of 2.0: Student Employee Training Checklist date School Year Break Break School Year

Section 1: Administration

a. Hiring packet b. Tour c. Emergency procedures d. SC&A presentation with Head e. Departmental Manual f. Overview of departmental website g. Opening procedures h. Closing procedures i. Mail Room

Section 2: Security

a. Security PowerPoint b. Reading Room Security c. Sign-in Sheet

Section 3: Preservation

a. Preservation PowerPoint b. Identifying basic preservation needs c. Proper use of book cradles d. Proper handling, shelving, and paging of material e. Proper use of placement of materials on shelving trucks f. Book Jackets g. Proper housing of materials h. Proper reproduction techniques

Section 4: Stacks Maintenance

a. Stacks Maintenance PowerPoint b. Call Numbers and locations c. Call number test d. Shelving e. Shelving test f. Shelf Reading g. Shifting

Section 5: Reproductions

a. Review of Reproduction techniques b. Reproduction requests c. ILL requests

Section 6: Archival Training

a. Archival PowerPoint b. Basic archival terminology c. Overview of SC&A “Flagship Collection” d. Website training e. Overview of Online Archive of California (OAC) f. Locating, paging, and shelving archival materials g. Policies and procedures h. Archival project

Section 7: Acquisitions and ILS

a. Acquisitions and ILS PowerPoint b. ILS Training c. Searching Training d. Comparing Training e. ILS Test

Section 8: Processing

a. Processing PowerPoint b. Book Processing Training c. Processing test

Section 8: Public Service

a. Public Service PowerPoint b. Information desk policies/procedures c. When a researcher arrives d. When a researcher leaves e. Materials being used by a researcher f. Phone etiquette procedure g. Researcher questions over the phone h. Transferring phone calls i. Review of “Sign-In” sheet j. Information desk statistics

Training the Next Generation: Best Practices in Student Training at the University of California, Riverside Libraries | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 57 3.0: Detailed Training Sections

Section 1: Administration

Tis was an informational session between the direct supervisor and the new student employee. Here, the employee received a hiring packet and time to read the student guidelines and procedures manual, along with the student employee guidelines contract. Tis contract provided a written expectation of the employee’s professional behavior towards researchers and the public, in addition to policies and procedures pertaining to break times and calling in sick. Once the employee reviewed these documents, the direct supervisor provided an opportunity for discussion and questions. Following this discussion, the employee received a tour of the department and an overview of activities within each unit. On this tour, the employee met all members of the department, and heard a brief description of each staf member’s responsibilities and duties. Time was set aside for the employee to meet with the head of the department for a short one-on-one session designed for the employee to gain a deeper understanding of the role of a special collections department. Te last part of this section was dedicated to an overview of departmental communications and daily functions. Tis included department websites (both public and internal), the department blog where projects, schedules and announcements were placed, along with the opening and closing procedures and other ofce needs, such as mailroom runs. While this section was time consuming, it was important for the employee to have an overview of the basic elements of the department. Tis aided in the other sections of training, most specifcally to the Security Section.

Section 2: Security

Tis section, along with others in the training, provided time for employee feedback and discussion, continuing a participatory style of training. Designed to provide information regarding the guidelines suggested by the Association of College and Research Libraries Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (ACRL/RBMS) Security Committee, this session outlined policies pertaining to a special collections department. A PowerPoint presentation provided the history of ACRL/RBMS, the Security Committee, and detailed recommendations for maintaining a secure department. In addition to reading the section in the student manual and viewing the presentation, each employee received a review of the departmental security procedures from his or her direct supervisor and the head of the department. Here, the focus was

Training the Next Generation: Best Practices in Student Training at the University of California, Riverside Libraries | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 58 on security and why UCR’s Special Collections & Archives conducts policies and procedures in such a manner. During this session, the employee had a chance to answer questions pertaining to such security procedures. For example, recommendations from the Security Committee outline elements of a secured reading room. Te direct supervisor provided this information through the PowerPoint presentation (in addition to the department tour and material within the hiring packet) and then asked the employee to name one of the department’s policies that facilitated a recommendation from the Security Committee. Tis allowed the student to show what he or she learned and for the direct supervisor to observe the employee’s level of comprehension. It was very important for an employee to understand the need for following the security policies and procedures of the department to ensure access for future generations. Educating new employees on the “dos and don’ts” of security within the department helped provide a foundation of knowledge and room for professional growth.

Section 3: Preservation

UCR developed the section to train employees on the proper technique of handling special collections material. Many employees have little or no experience with such material. It was discussed and determined by the staf members that the understanding of preservation policies and procedures should be a high training priority. Such tasks as stacks maintenance, reproductions orders, processing and public service could not be conducted without this basic understanding. Te preservationist designed and facilitated this training, which consisted of a PowerPoint presentation introducing policies and procedures and then a hands-on training session, which included handling and using the material, proper stacks maintenance techniques, and minimal level preservation work. During this training, new student employees learned how to identify and correct basic preservation problems including how to house materials in Mylar enclosures; how to create custom protective book jackets; how to handle materials properly during photocopying or scanning projects; how to shelve and remove items from the stacks; and how to identify stacks maintenance issues such as too-tight spacing or crowding that could damage fragile material. Trough this preservation training, employees learned how to take care of material within the department. Tis provided them with a foundation of knowledge to better provide superior public service, to feel confdent in following the policies and procedures, and to be able to contribute to the overarching goals of a special collections department.

Training the Next Generation: Best Practices in Student Training at the University of California, Riverside Libraries | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 59 Section 4: Stacks Maintenance

To ensure consistency, UCR used a PowerPoint presentation to discuss the three areas of stacks maintenance: shelving, shelf reading, and shifting. Te direct supervisor provided defnitions and specifc reasons why these tasks needed to be completed, all linking back to the department goals of access and preservation. Te training included instruction on the use of the Library of Congress call numbers and the many locations within the stacks for diferent types of materials; the importance of shelf reading and its value in protecting and preserving the collection; and shifting. While the frst two areas were the main focus of this training, shifting was project based, requiring in-depth training when needed. However, providing basic information on how and why shifting occurs gave the employee a sense of understanding with regard to general library functions, further developing the employee’s understanding of the department and library as a whole. Connell and Mileham (2006) suggest spreading training throughout the year (p. 81). Continual training within the stacks maintenance section allowed an employee to develop their understanding of the department’s collection at their own pace. Once stacks maintenance training was completed, employees conducted daily duties such as shelving and ongoing shelf reading, along with assigned stacks projects. Reale (2013) suggests that professionals can help student employees see their place in the library as an extension of the classroom where they will learn skills that can extend way beyond their college experience (p. 45). For example, on many occasions, completion of a task, such as shelving, sparked an employee’s interest. Given the opportunity to physically work with the collection, employees gained additional knowledge of the material within the department. Many of them saw the new material added to the collection and asked questions as to why such an item would be housed in the department. Such discussion and the additional knowledge of the collection aided the employees in conducting their public service duties more efciently. Tis gave the employee the tools needed to answer basic information and reference questions, provide access and promote the collection.

Section 5: Reproductions

Reproductions are key to providing signifcant access and public service to the collection. Preservation, however, is a more important priority. Te skills learned in the preservation section were vital and follow-through became very important. Additionally, once an employee gained a level of understanding as to what material can and cannot be reproduced, he or she is capable

Training the Next Generation: Best Practices in Student Training at the University of California, Riverside Libraries | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 60 of explaining, with confdence, the reasoning behind the department’s reproduction policies. During this training, employees also learned the workfow for reproductions. Te preservationist provided a refresher session on how to handle material on the reproduction equipment within the department (photocopier, scanner, and camera). Once completed, the new employee was paired with a senior employee when a reproduction request came through. Te senior employee took the lead and moved through the workfow explaining every step to the new employee. Eventually, the new student would be assigned and complete reproduction requests independently.

Section 6: Archival Training

Similar to the preservation training, the department archivist conducted this portion of the training. A PowerPoint presentation provided defnitions and examples of archival and manuscript collections, along with an overview of the fagship collections within the department. An employee received training in locating archival collection records in the library catalog and through the Online Archive of California. Te employee received hands-on training, working directly with the archivist, on the archival workfow for paging/retrieving material from diferent locations throughout the department. Tis included flling out the paging/retrieval slip, identifying the location within the stacks, and proper paging technique. To reinforce key training lessons, UCR assigned new employees paging requests for archival material during their shifts. A senior employee shadowed the new employee to ensure he or she conducted the process properly. Additionally each new employee received an archival project within the frst few months of employment. Tis included, but was not limited to, rehousing new accessions, scanning projects and minimal level processing in Archivist Toolkit.

Section 7: Acquisitions and ILS Training

After physically working with the collection through projects and daily tasks, an employee began training on the Integrated Library System (ILS). Most employees had limited experience with the online catalog and no experience with the staf mode of the ILS. Providing behind-the-scenes information, the ILS was key to understanding the system and completing the basic duties assigned to an employee. Beginning with a PowerPoint presentation outlining the diferent searching options, location codes and identifying key notes or messages in records, an employee conducted a searching project using recent donations to the

Training the Next Generation: Best Practices in Student Training at the University of California, Riverside Libraries | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 61 collection. Tis type of project provided employees with hands-on experience to familiarize themselves with the ILS system and explore possible additions to the collection. During these projects the employees asked questions about cataloging, publication information and book editions which provided an educational opportunity for the direct supervisor to expand the employees’ understanding of publishing and collecting. Te happy result of this aspect of their training was that employees became skilled enough to handle the frst level of reference, limiting the need for assistance from professional staf.

Section 8: Processing

Employees were responsible for conducting all book processing of newly cataloged special collections material. In most institutions there are specifc stages to processing, including steps involving levels of security and control, which should be conducted within the department. As with most libraries, the only way to locate material in the stacks is via a call number. When material arrived in the department, an employee was charged with checking the cataloging records for the correct location and cataloging date, which are needed to provide access to material within the department. An understanding of the ILS was required to conduct this task. Tis training began with a PowerPoint presentation that discussed the diferent types of fags, bookplates, and labels used to process material. An employee received instructions on the workfow along with examples of the dos and don’ts of processing. After the presentation, the employee worked alongside a senior employee, to physically process new material. Te new employees implemented techniques and skills learned from other sections of training during the processing of new material. For example, the employees were expected to identify preservation concerns when an item arrived, such as the need for an enclosure. Since employees were the frst to see new material entering the department, their understanding of the collection was once again enhanced, contributing to the goal of providing access.

Section 9: Public Service

Building on the skills learned in sections one through eight, this fnal section summarized the workfows to facilitate efective public service within a special collections department. Conducted by the direct supervisor, a PowerPoint presentation outlined general public service etiquette, public service procedures, specifc policies and procedures of the reading room, and workfows for patron use of material and reproduction requests, along with basic reception duties. Ten each new employee shadowed a senior employee at the information desk. Draper, Oswald, and Renfro (2007) reinforce the importance of this part of

Training the Next Generation: Best Practices in Student Training at the University of California, Riverside Libraries | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 62 training stating, “[O]nce a student has done the tutorials they are scheduled to work at the Information Desk with another student who is profcient at working that desk” (p. 136). Tis gave the new employee a chance to conduct observations and to ask questions of their peers. Based on Standfeld and Palmer’s (2010) survey, role playing scenarios and reference interview training are the most benefcial for student employees with regard to reference duties (p. 637). Senior employees conducted scenarios with the new employee. If a professional staf member was available, he or she would take part in a scenario. Tis was benefcial in developing the new employees’ comfort level while serving at the information desk and to simulate the workfows outlined in training. Te amount of time spent on this training depended on the individual employee and his or her personal abilities. However, at this point in the program all of the employees were very excited to move to the information desk, hoping to test what they had learned through their training and to prove what they had accomplished.

Training the Next Generation: Best Practices in Student Training at the University of California, Riverside Libraries | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 63 Assessing Archival Collections through Surveys

Wendy Pflug, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

Author Note:

Wendy Pflug, Associate Curator for Collections & Assistant Professor, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to: Wendy Pflug, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, Sullivant Hall, 1813 N. High Street, Columbus, OH 43210.

Contact: [email protected]

64 Abstract

Assessment of collections holdings through survey can be used as the frst step in the larger goal to uncover archives and special collections materials that are backlogged and thus inaccessible to researchers. Tis article seeks to gather data on the experiences and outcomes of collections assessment surveys. Te responses of thirty-three archives and special collections professionals were analyzed to discover whether a survey was an efective planning tool and to determine if similarities would emerged that could be widely applied to future collections assessments surveys.

Keywords: Access, Assessment, Backlog, Hidden collections, Processing, Surveys

65 Assessing Archival Collections through Surveys

Wendy Pflug, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

In 2003, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) held the Exposing Hidden Collections conference to focus on the issues of unprocessed, unavailable, or backlogged materials in archival and special collections repositories. Conference fndings noted that “libraries collectively hold millions of items that have never been adequately described and therefore are all but unknown to, and unused by, the scholars it is our mission to serve” (Tabb, 2004, p.123). To increase access, strategies for addressing backlogs have emphasized making materials available by employing minimal description as opposed to meticulous arrangement and description. Awareness of the damaging efects of backlogs, such as the lack of preservation and the potential loss of cultural heritage materials, has grown among repositories. As a result many have begun to assess their unprocessed and under-described materials to better understand the scope of their backlog in order to plan and prioritize projects to expose collections that are efectively “hidden” to the public. Te 2011 OCLC Research report, “Taking Stock and Making Hay: Archival Collections Assessment” by Martha O’Hara Conway and Merrilee Proftt, encouraged conducting collection surveys to evaluate and systematically gather information on all holdings in order to better understand how to provide access. Te report proposed the beneft of assessment through surveying, stating, “An accurate census of its archival collection enables the institution to act strategically in meeting user needs, allocating available resources and securing additional funding” (Conway & Proftt, 2011, p.8). Despite the benefts derived from collections surveys, the practice is irregular

66 in archival repositories because often it cannot be completed without additional resources. Te issue of collection backlog is a concern to many, if not all repositories. Reports such as Conway and Proftt’s (2011) and the large multi-repository unprocessed collection survey conducted by the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collection Libraries (PACSCL) have shown that a survey can be the frst step toward the ultimate goal of increased access. In fact, archivist Gregory S. Hunter states, “surveying records is an important archival skill, but one which does not receive enough emphasis within the profession. Everything else an archivist does – appraisal, arrangement, description, reference, and outreach- presupposes the ability to locate and identify records” (Hunter, 2003, p.22). Archivists and special collections librarians often inherit backlogs, making it likely that they are unfamiliar with the contents. Previous access may have been dependent on institutional knowledge of long-time staf. To achieve the goal of increased access including being independently discoverable by researchers, collections need description, preferably online description. Before beginning work to increase access to materials by processing collections, creating online fnding aids, and collection-level catalog records, often an assessment or survey of collections is necessary to determine where and how to start. How do the experiences and results of surveying collections by archivists and special collections libraries compare? Specifcally, is there was a formula or a specifc survey instrument to use? What is the typical amount of time a collections assessment survey should take? What can be learned from the survey results? Did others fnd it to be a useful experience? Tis study provides descriptive research on archivists’ experience with assessing collections through survey at their own institutions. By attempting to systematically gather data and compare experiences to see if common elements emerged: Are there typical results for this sort of project? What can we learn about the assessment of collections through surveys?

Collections Surveys in Literature

Interest in uncovering hidden collections which are uncatalogued or otherwise under-described, making them unknown to researchers, grew after the publication of the 1998 ARL survey of special collections libraries. Most notably the survey reported that among the 82 institutions that were polled, the mean for unprocessed manuscripts was 27 percent. Similarly, university archives, as reported from 71 institutions, indicated that 31 percent of collection materials were unprocessed. Te survey reported higher percentages of unprocessed material for video (35 percent), graphic (36 percent), audio (37 percent), and artifacts (46 percent) (Panitch, 2000,

67 pp.49-50). Tis represents a signifcant amount of special collections and archival materials that are inaccessible to researchers because they are unprocessed or under-described. In an efort to acknowledge the problem of backlogs and seek ways to make these hidden collections visible to researchers, the ARL chaired a Special Collections Task Force, which organized 2003’s Exposing Hidden Collections and published a Final Status Report on the conference fndings. One position that has emerged from the conference and fnal report is that some access to all is preferable to no access to some. Tis seems to mark the movement towards minimal description as an approach to expedite availability to archival materials. To help address the problem of backlogs, the Council on Library Information and Resources (CLIR), with funding provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, created the Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives Program1 to provide grants for projects “supporting innovative, efcient description of large volumes of materials of high value to scholars” (Council on Library Information and Resources “Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives, About the Program”). Projects that received funding were required to make information about the collections available online. Te main requirement for funding was that “collections in question must be truly hidden, that is, not currently discoverable by scholarly users working within the relevant subject domains, either through digital or analog means” (Council on Library Information Resources, Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives, About the Program). Metadata on collections were compiled into the Hidden Collections Registry, a web-accessible platform, browsable by subject, format, or type of holding institution (Council on Library Information Resources, Hidden Collections Registry). Gregory S. Hunter, author of Developing and Managing Practical Archives, encourages the use of a survey as an efective collection management tool, but advises, “Any [collection] survey, even a small one, is a complex task. It will require a great deal of time and efort, resulting in the diversion of staf time from other activities” (Hunter, 2003, p.27). Collection surveys require additional resources and in a period of reduced funding and many competing interests, the act of surveying is not a regular practice in most repositories. In order to have useful data from the survey, a clearly defned goal is a necessity. Hunter urges archivists to use the results of the survey as a planning tool for the repository’s programs by identifying priorities for the future and gathering resources that will be needed to reach those goals. However, Hunter cautions that “To spend time on a survey without using the results for institutional 1. CLIR’s Cataloging Hidden planning is a squandering of resources. Similarly, to plan for an archival Special Collections and Archives Program was discontinued in program without having an accurate survey of existing records and storage December 2014.

68 conditions is to risk the failure of the entire efort” (Hunter, 2003, p. 30). Collection assessment by survey is a time-intensive exercise, but allows an archivist to establish physical and intellectual control over collections, which results in a clearer idea of the scope and needs of the materials. However, few universal guidelines exist for conducting a collection survey. Conway and Proftt in “Taking Stock and Making Hay” (2011) acknowledge that a single approach does not exist and would not be practical to ft the needs of every repository. Instead, Appendix A of the report summarizes fourteen collection survey projects successfully undertaken2 by various institutions and provides links to their websites containing the project documentation and survey models which can be borrowed and adapted to suit a range of survey projects. Conway and Proftt express their hope that the report motivates those who are interested in using a survey to assess their collections by suggesting an array of possibilities that can be readily applied to meet immediate and/or long-term needs” (Conway & Proftt, 2011, p.8).

Method: Collections Assessment Survey Questionnaire (CASQ)

While several repositories have completed assessments of their collections by survey, there has not been specifc information in literature that addresses the experiences and fndings of these surveys at other repositories. It is possible to presume their experiences and fndings by the type of projects conducted after their survey. For example, PACSCL at the conclusion of their survey initiative received funding to process collections and create online descriptions. Several of the collection survey projects identifed in “Taking Stock and Making Hay”(2011) had launched project blogs that indicated a move towards applying More Product, Less Process (MPLP) principles and/or cataloging the formerly unprocessed collections. However, as of this study there has not been literature that addressed the experience of conducting a collections assessment survey and the impact upon the institution. What types of data did others gather in a collection assessment survey? Is there a more efcient way of conducting a collection assessment survey? Would others have conducted their surveys diferently if they had known methodology employed by other institutions? Can answers to these questions reveal any consistencies in order to establish guidelines 2. Or in progress at the time for conducting a collections survey? To fnd a sample of archivists or “Taking Stock and Making Hay: Archival Collections Assessment” special collections librarians that have conducted or participated in was published in 2011. collection surveys, messages3 were posted on two of the Society of 3. See Appendix I for text of the American Archivists’ (SAA) Roundtables email discussion lists: the Lone messages.

69 Arrangers Roundtable and the Students and New Archives Professional (SNAP) Roundtables. Te two SAA Roundtables were selected because of previous discussion regarding internal archival inventories on the Lone Arrangers list and the suggestion that, because the SNAP Roundtable focus on students and early career professionals, members would have been likely to have participated in an assessment of collection materials as a surveyor. Te posting invited those who had conducted or participated in a collection survey to complete an online questionnaire hosted by Survey Monkey. Prior to the study, approval was received from Te Ohio State University Institutional Review Board to conduct the survey with members of the two SAA Roundtable discussion lists. Tose who responded remained anonymous and no identifying information was collected. All participants self-identifed as having previously completed or as being in the process of conducting a collections survey by agreeing to answer the questions. Te Collection Assessment Survey Questionnaire (CASQ) consisted of 14 questions, seven of which were free-text answers in order to elicit responses on the participant’s experiences in their own words. Te other seven were multiple choice questions designed to allow participants to choose more than one answer as well as contribute free- text comments to place their selections in context. Te survey was live from June 25 to August 8, 2014. Tirty-three respondents participated, of which 25 completed the entire survey. Incomplete responses included only the multiple choices questions and skipped the more descriptive free- text responses, so there was still data that could be analyzed. Admittedly, the sample size was small, but the CASQ was designed as a descriptive research survey to depict a representative sample of experiences and provide insight into the process and impact of collections surveys.

Results: Collection Assessment Survey Questionnaire Findings

About 66 percent of the respondents indicated that a collection survey was used to assess the entire holdings, including both unprocessed and processed materials of any format, while about 18 percent chose to use a collection survey only to assess materials of specifc formats such as electronic records, architectural drawings, or sacramental registers. About 6 percent) reported that they used their surveys only to assess materials in a specifc subject area. Te catalysts for conducting a collections survey varied among the participants. Some respondents cited assessing backlog, preservation needs, and updating inventories. Others undertook surveys at that

70 particular time in order to locate materials for an upcoming institutional anniversary, to clear materials from a storage space, or simply to take advantage of part-time help during the summer months. Te answers all indicated that the principal goal for the collection survey was to gain intellectual and physical control of their repository’s materials. When respondents were specifcally asked, “Question 2: Briefy select the reasons for conducting an internal survey (please check all that all apply),” the highest percentage, 78 percent, chose the answer “to gain intellectual control.” Te second most popular answer was “To gain physical control” at 69 percent. (See Table I below.)

Answer Choices Percentage Number of Responses

To identify unprocessed or 66.67% 22 under-processed materials or backlogged materials

To identify material in need of 60.61% 20 preservation or conservation

To gain intellectual control 78.79% 26

To gain physical control 69.70% 23

To identify collection 13 strengths and opportunities to 39.39% expand collecting efforts

Table I. Question 2, Briefy select the reasons for conducting an internal survey (check all that apply) [33 Answered; 0 Skipped]

Interestingly, one respondent shared that in addition to wanting to gain better physical and intellectual control, undertaking a survey was also motivated by donors. Te respondent explains: “Te efort was also inspired by the occasional donor wanting to see the collection he/she donated at some point in the past, but as there had been no accessioning or cataloging procedures I often could not locate them (nor confrm we had ever had them). If materials were found they were not in very good shape. Tis became a little embarrassing. So the survey was also done in an efort to restore the faith of these donors and show potential donors that we took our role as stewards of these materials seriously” (Participant #17). Question 4 asked participants to select the types of information gathered in their survey, choosing from a list of 21 felds (see Table II). Te most frequent responses were format and location of materials (89.3 percent), followed the by extent or quantity (85.7 percent), physical

71 condition (75 percent), creator and title (both 71.4 percent), and subject of collection tied with the availability of unpublished fnding aid or other container list (both 35 percent). Tis selection represents the most commonly gathered information felds from the respondents’ surveys. Te other types of information gathered were specifc to the individual survey and repository, such as recording the physical dimensions of oversized artwork. One respondent indicated inclusion of a feld to record if a collection contained materials related to a prominent individual or historical event at their university. Participants were asked to describe the physical steps used to collect the information. All respondents indicated that they assessed materials directly within the collection storage space. One used the term “hunting” to describe locating materials in various storage areas. In conjunction

Answer Choice Percentage Number of Responses

Creator 71.43% 20

Title 71.43% 20

Inclusive or bulk dates 60.71% 17

Extent or quantity 85.71% 24

Format of materials 89.29% 25

Location of materials 89.29 25

Brief Collection abstract 28.57% 8

Subject of collection 35.71% 10

Physical condition 75.00% 21

Availability of catalog record 32.14% 9

Availability of online finding aid 25.00% 7

Availability of unpublished finding aid 35.7% 10 or other container list

Related materials 25.00% 7

Access restrictions 28.57% 8

Expected collection growth 21.43% 6

Language 21.43% 6

Processing status 42.86% 12

Numerical Rankings 10.71% 3

Provenance 39.29% 11

Other (not on list) 21.43% 6

Table II. Question 4, Please list the felds used in the survey (check all that apply): [28 Answered; 5 Skipped]

72 with the physical inspection of each box, respondents also gathered existing inventories and paper fles to reconcile what was known or what had been done previously to the collection. One respondent indicated the need to examine contents thoroughly because of a lack of documentation. Some took initial action along the way to box up loose materials, refle misfled items, amend information, and rehouse materials. Several of the respondents indicated they were able to take a laptop in their stacks and enter information directly into the template. Most respondents used a paper form of the survey to jot down observations, later transcribing and entering them into a software program. Most respondents (62.5 percent) used Excel spreadsheets to organize their information; programs such as Access and File Maker Pro, were not widely used, each with 4.17 percent. Other systems such as Lotus Notes and PB Works Wiki were used because their larger institution used the software. Paper was the second most selected answer at 29.17 percent. One respondent stated that paper forms were used because their volunteer surveyors were not comfortable with computers. Another respondent indicated that their repository did not have access to a database program and thus used a paper form and later created a Word document. Several stated they were able to enter the survey information directly into Archivists’ Toolkit. Respondents reported an average of two full-time staf members and one part-time staf member working on their collection survey (see Table III). Assistance from students and volunteers was also used at an average of eight hours per week. Since the availability of students and volunteers can vary, the questionnaire asked respondents to estimate. Te estimate of the number of hours all persons spent working on the survey varied greatly among respondents. Answers ranged from a total of eight hours to 5,000 hours. Te reasons for such disparity could be due to several factors including the extent of collections, physical state of the materials, complexity of information encountered, and individual pace, but respondents did not elaborate on this. According to the CASQ, respondents estimated that all staf members working on the survey spent an average of 914 hours to complete the survey. Despite the wide range of hours, the investment of time and labor was signifcant. In addition to physically inspecting each container, some participants also researched previous data collected about the materials, reconciling legacy inventories, and several respondents mentioned interviewing current and former staf for their institutional memories concerning archival collections. A collection survey is a time investment and often additional resources are involved. As Participant #19 described the reaction of their repository, “Tere’s been some dismay at the amount of time it took, but it demonstrated how much needs to be done with the collection.”

73 Although there was a large investment of time, the self-reported results indicated that half of the respondents considered themselves “very satisfed” with the outcomes of their survey, and 66 percent agreed that the survey had achieved all the goals it had set out to complete (see Tables III and IV). According to the respondents, gaining a better understanding of their collections, including physical and intellectual control, was the most successful aspect of the survey. When asked “Question 13, What was the biggest challenge you faced in conducting their survey,” answers generally

Answer Choices Percentage Responses

Very Satisfied 50% 13

Satisfied 38.46% 10

Neither satisfied nor 11.54% 3 dissatisfied Dissatisfied 0% 0

Very Dissatisfied 0% 0

Table III. Question 10, How satisfed are you with the results of your survey? [26 Answered; 7 Skipped]

Answer Choices Percentage Responses

It achieved all the goals 66.67% 16

It achieved some of the goals 33.33% 8

It did not achieve the goals 0% 0

Table IV. Question 11, Did your survey achieve the goals described in question #3? [24 Answered; 9 Skipped] touched upon limited resources (both of time and staf) for what was a large task, and respondents indicated that fnding time to work on the survey was the biggest challenge they faced. Another common challenge for the respondents was the very little or non-existent provenance information on the collections. Answers included:

“Complexity of and incorrect information recorded for many collections, and messy accession information have slowed this all down” (Participant #12);

“What seemed to me to be an idiosyncratic fling system in place (collections based on topics, not provenance)” (Participant #5);

74 “Collections with little accession information” (Participant #20);

“Te complete lack of records from the previous archivist’s tenure was also a real challenge” (Participant #13);

Interestingly, one respondent experienced resistance from staf regarding the necessity of conducting a survey. Colleagues with more seniority felt they could fnd everything, so they felt it was a waste of time (Participant #30). Disorganization combined with little provenance information also challenged respondents. Another difculty experienced by many was the challenge of being unfamiliar with the materials, because they did not understand the signifcance of obscure terms or persons found within the unprocessed materials until after they had processed the collections. Likewise, unfamiliarity with the repository made it difcult to ascertain the corporate structure of the organization and create a records retention schedule. One respondent reported the challenge of training students and the need to impress upon them the importance of understanding what they would see, since theirs might be the only eyes on the item for decades. Generally, the reaction from the respondents’ supervisors or institutions to the outcomes of the surveys was positive. Te answers indicated that supervisors were mostly pleased with the improved access to collections and unprocessed materials by the public and by the staf. One respondent noted a great response by faculty to using “new” materials in the archives (Question 14, Participant #21). Other responses from supervisors and institutions were more neutral stating that the survey was “just something that needs to be done” (Question 14, Participant #2).

Discussion

Collection Assessment Survey Questionnaire

An analysis of the qualitative responses confrmed the assumption that surveys were efective planning tools. Respondents shared that unknown collections were identifed, processing projects were planned, items were earmarked for preservation, and publishable collection metadata had been created as a result of the survey. Te CASQ results revealed the impact of collection survey results on allocation of resources, especially in terms of physical storage space. One respondent stated that they used the information gathered in the collection survey in order to estimate the shelving needs of a new space. Likewise, one respondent used the survey results to determine cold storage needs for audiovisual materials.

75 Another indicated that the collection survey was done in order to shift materials around to better utilize their current space. Additional responses echoed these sentiments, that results from the surveys were used to make decisions about storage needs. It seems that physical storage space can infuence many decisions in a repository. One respondent explains, “Te archives was [sic] set up by a volunteer with very limited knowledge of any archival theory or practices. As it exists now, it is almost unusable and needs to be reconfgured in a way that can support growth while retaining the original order. Te survey was the frst step in this process” (Participant #4). CASQ fndings also indicated that results were used to tighten the scope of collections. Participant #30 used the collection survey results to sort materials out of their storage space that did not belong to archives or were better suited to be “moved to other parts of the library.” Another, Participant #9, stated that as a result of their collection survey they were able to identify materials that needed to be returned to donors.4 Respondent #28 stated one the goals for conducting a collection survey was “to identify out-of-scope collections.” Similarly, another used the results of the survey to “create records retention schedule in order to do disposition based on the retention schedule” (Participant #16). Te survey results helped several respondents to assess collecting areas to develop and which areas could be weeded. An additional impact of the survey for several respondents was that it functioned as a tool to transfer or gain institutional knowledge. Te respondents stated:

“Our current college archivist has been here since 1986 and knows the collections in and out. But beyond his brain, there was little-to-no intellectual control over the holdings” (Participant #5).

“As a newly-appointed archivist, I needed to know what materials were in the archives. I was only the second person in the position, and the previous archivist had left no inventories or collection information at all” (Participant #15).

“As the frst full-time archivists, no complete inventory had ever been performed on the collection” (Participant #21).

4. Te archive only held parish “I assumed responsibility for processing collections after a colleague registers from closed churches; left, and the director of the archive was recently transferred in, so we parish registers from still operating churched needed to be returned as could [both] become more familiar with our holdings” (Participant #20). they were out of scope.

76 Besides systematically gathering data about collections in order to have consistent and adequate description, a collection survey can also be used as an immersive experience for a new archivist to gain institutional knowledge and document that information for others.

CASQ Impact

Te purpose of the CASQ was to gather data on the experiences of conducting a survey to determine if there were similarities which could be applied widely to other collections assessment surveys. Te CASQ results did reveal some common elements. A majority of respondents assessed their entire holdings as opposed to surveying just unprocessed collections or materials of a specifc format. Te main catalyst for conducting a survey among the respondents was to gain intellectual and physical control over collections. While the CASQ results did not indicate a specifc survey instrument or model, some common elements of the types of information were gathered, such as format, location, extent and physical conditions of the materials. Additional types of information such as the availability of an online fnding aid or physical dimensions were unique to the specifc repository and its holdings. No specifc formula or guidelines were uncovered through the CASQ fndings. Te results of a survey are largely dependent on the repository’s goals. Many of the respondents did indicate that they lacked any data for their collections, or that the data was incorrect or incomplete. In order to move forward to accomplish the larger goal of increasing access, consistent collection-level data was required. Most often the survey was the necessary step before a larger plan could be developed. Tis recalls the statement in “Taking Stock and Making Hay” that an accurate census of materials allows an “institution to act strategically in meeting user needs and allocating available resources and securing additional funding” (Conway & Proftt, 2011, p.3). Te CASQ also identifed several secondary collection benefts resulting from the survey. Results of the collections surveys were used to evaluate future physical storage space needs and reconfgure existing space for growth. Several respondents reported that their results assisted in tightening the scope of collections and identifed materials to be deaccessioned or transferred. Responses did not indicate a typical amount of time required to complete a survey. Te CASQ found that the total hours spent on a survey varied greatly. A majority of the respondents rated their collections survey as having achieved all its goals. Remarkably, none of the respondents reported that their survey failed to achieve any goals. Similarly, half of the respondents rated themselves very satisfed, while none reported that they were dissatisfed or very dissatisfed with the results of their collections survey. Tese results seem to indicate that respondents found the survey to be a useful experience.

77 Limitations of the CASQ Study

Following discussion from the SAA Lone Arrangers Roundtable, the CASQ was initially designed as a small survey focused on library professionals in institutions with small stafs. While the results seem to indicate the survey was an efective tool, possibilities for further research into the topic would involve increasing the number of respondents to see if the results are applicable to a larger sample. It would also be useful to break down results based on the size of the institutions. Data from the experiences of surveys at large research libraries could introduce variables that were not considered by smaller institutions. Future research into collection assessment by survey should gather data on the institution size. It is also important to note that the CASQ revealed that respondents did not all use the same methodology when conducting surveys at their own repositories. Slight variations among the respondents could have signifcant impact upon experiences and results. Another limitation of the CASQ was in the lack of detail on the estimated staf hours spent on the survey. Follow-up research should break down the number of hours spent by part-time staf and by full-time staf and compare the hours with the number of collections that were surveyed to account more accurately for the average amount of time it took to complete the survey.

Conclusion

Awareness of the damaging efects of backlogged or hidden collections has made increasing access to archival and special collections materials a priority among many repositories. As the frst step to increase access, many institutions have used collections surveys to assess all types of materials within their care to better understand the needs of the backlogged materials and to plan and prioritize projects that will uncover these collections. Te surveys function as a systematic method to gather consistent collection data in order to prioritize, plan, and create descriptive information. An immediate result of the collections survey is better intellectual control by providing the percentage of processed and unprocessed collections. Te surveys had a secondary beneft as a method to document the institutional knowledge of long-time staf. In order to fnd out what can be learned from collections assessment surveys, the CASQ reached out to professionals who had completed their own collections surveys in order to elicit their experiences. Responses to the CASQ indicated that many institutions also found assessment through collection surveys to be an efective planning tool. While the results did not reveal a consistent survey instrument or typical timeline for surveying

78 a collection, results of the surveys allowed the majority respondents to better understand the needs of their collections and allocate resources. Te results of the CASQ can be considered the frst step to analyze experiences conducting collection assessment surveys. Further research into this topic could reveal more insights and lead to developing a set of best practices. Suggestions for further study include expanding the respondent sample, specifcally including participants from larger research libraries. Te CASQ form should be revised to document institutional size of repository to study its efects. In future research, a deeper exploration of the variations in assessment of hidden collection survey methodologies could provide additional useful data regarding the survey experience.

79 References

CLIR (Council on Library and Information Resources). Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives. Retrieved September 15, 2014 from http://www.clir.org/ hiddencollections

CLIR (Council on Library and Information Resources). Hidden Collections Registry. Retrieved March 31, 2015 from http://www.clir.org/hiddencollections/ registry#c12=all&b_start=0

Hunter, Gregory S. (2003). Developing and maintaining practical archives: a how-to- do-it manual. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc.

Conway, Martha O’Hara & Proftt, Merrilee. (2011). Taking Stock and Making Hay: Archival Collections Assessment. Dublin, Ohio: OCLC Research. Retrieved from http://www.oclc.org/research/publications/library/2011/2011-07.pdf

Panitch, Judith (2000). Special Collections in ARL Libraries. Washington, D.C.

Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries (2012). PACSCL/ CLIR Hidden

Collections Processing Project, 2009-2012 Post Processing Research Value Rating Evaluation. Retrieved July 14, 2015 from http://clir.pacscl.org/wp-content/ uploads/2009/07/Research_Value_Rating.pdf

Tabb, Winston. (2004). “’Wherefore Are Tese Tings Hidden’? A Report of a Survey Undertaken by the

ARL Special Collections Task Force.” RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, & Cultural Heritage, Vol.5, (No.2, Fall 2004) pp.123-126.

Williford, Christa. (2014, April 22). Un-Hidden Collections: CLIR’s seven-year experiment in exposing scholarly resources and the question of digitization. [Blog post]. Retrieved November 17, 2014 from http://connect.clir.org/blogs/christa- williford/2014/04/22/un-hidden-collections

80 Appendix I

Initial Survey (CASQ) Administered via Survey Monkey-Email Invitation:

Call for Volunteers: Survey on methods used in conducting an internal archival inventory

Hello Colleagues: Happy Friday!

Have you conducted or participated in an internal archival inventory? If so, I need your help!

My name is Wendy Pfug and I am an associate curator/archivist at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at Ohio State University. Last month’s discussion on conducting an internal archival inventory brought many great responses from those who have conducted a survey and much helpful advice for those beginning or in the midst of an inventory survey. Following a research interest of mine, I am seeking to survey other archivists who have conducted an internal survey of their repository’s collections and materials, in order to fnd how it was done and what impact it had. Below is a link to a short survey (14 questions, many multiple choice, which will take about 20 minutes) asking what types of materials were surveyed, the reasons for conducting an internal inventory, what types of information was gathered, and the fnal results. Te goal of these questions is to fnd out what information is needed to conduct an efective inventory survey and to articulate the impact it can have on a repository. My intention is to write an article based on these questions that will (hopefully) be a resource for other colleagues beginning their inventories from scratch and to enhance our understanding of what sort of information could be considered efective. If you have any questions or concerns about the study and survey please contact the Principle Investigator, Wendy Pfug at [email protected] or by phone 614-292-0538.

Please note: the survey questions will not ask identifying information such as your name or workplace; all answers will be anonymous. For questions about your rights as a participant in this study or to discuss other study-related concerns or complaints with someone who is not part of the research team, you may contact Ms. Sandra Meadows in the Office of Responsible Research at 1-800-678-6251.

Thanks in advance for your help with my research!

Assessing Archival Collections through Surveys | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 81 Appendix II

Survey Questions

Responses for all questions are available.

1. Did the survey inventory the entire holdings within the repository or did the survey focus on materials of a specifc format or subject, or other criteria? 2. Briefy select the reasons for conducting an internal survey (check all that apply) 3. Can you describe your goals for conducting the survey? 4. Please list the felds used in the survey (check all that apply): 5. What were the physical steps or procedures used to collect the information for the felds? 6. How did you organize the results of the descriptive information? 7. What did you or your organization do with the results of the survey? 8. Please estimate the number of staf hours it took to complete this survey: 9. Please estimate the number of items and/or number of collections surveyed 10. How satisfed are you with the results of your survey? 11. Did your survey achieve the goals described in question #3? 12. What was the most successful aspect or aspects of your survey? 13. What was the biggest challenge you faced in conducting the survey? 14. Please describe the response of your institution to the survey

82 Read a Zine, Then Make One, Then Catalog it: Creating a Zine Library at SUNY New Paltz

Madeline Veitch, SUNY New Paltz

Author Note:

Madeline Veitch, Metadata, Research & Zine Librarian, Sojourner Truth Library at SUNY New Paltz.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Madeline Veitch, Sojourner Truth Library, State University of New York New Paltz, 300 Hawk Drive, New Paltz, NY 12561-2493.

Contact: [email protected]

Read a Zine, Then Make One, Then Catalog it: Creating a Zine Library at SUNY New Paltz | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 83 Abstract

Zines are self-published, low-budget printed, ephemeral works, motivated by a desire to share ideas of all kinds—personal refections, political essays, how-to instructions, and more. During spring 2014, several undergraduate students and a metadata and reference librarian collaborated to create a zine library at the State University of New York (SUNY) at New Paltz. In the years that followed, they received a small programming grant, organized zine readings and how-to workshops, developed an interactive social media presence, and created a zine library intern position.

Keywords: zines, student collaboration, student authors, programming, outreach, collection development

Read a Zine, Then Make One, Then Catalog it: Creating a Zine Library at SUNY New Paltz | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 84 Read a Zine, Then Make One, Then Catalog it: Creating a Zine Library at SUNY New Paltz

Madeline Veitch, SUNY New Paltz

What is a zine? Tis is a question heard many times since the SUNY New Paltz Zine Library began, and one that always takes some time to answer. My favorite response, which comes from Stephan Duncombe’s 2008 book, Notes from the Underground: Zines and the Politics of Alternative Culture, is to let the inquirer arrive at their own conclusion. As Duncombe tells it, “my initial, and probably correct, impulse is to hand over a stack of zines and let the person asking the question decide, for this is how they were introduced to me” (p. 6).

Figure 1. Zines from the SUNY New Paltz Zine Library. Image courtesy of the New Paltz Zine Library, Sojourner Truth Library, SUNY New Paltz.

Read a Zine, Then Make One, Then Catalog it: Creating a Zine Library at SUNY New Paltz | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 85 Time and circumstances don’t always allow for this kind of hands-on encounter, so staf have come up with talking points to introduce this latest special collection at the Sojourner Truth Library. Zines are self- published, typically on a low budget, with authors laying out spreads on their own computers, or by cutting and pasting text onto a master document that is then photocopied and distributed. Zine creators, sometimes referred to as zinesters, are generally motivated by a desire to share ideas, not to amass proft from the sale of their work. Tey often sell their zines at cost, trade them, or give them away. If these are some broad (but certainly not exclusive) parameters, the actual content of a zine knows no such bounds. A zine can be a collection of political essays, a how-to manual, a comic book, or a personal narrative. It may include art, be printed in color or black and

Figure 2. What to Do if You Experience Emotional Stress Burnout. By Jordan Alam, 2011. Image courtesy of the New Paltz Zine Library, Sojourner Truth Library, SUNY New Paltz.

Read a Zine, Then Make One, Then Catalog it: Creating a Zine Library at SUNY New Paltz | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 86 white, bound by hand or stapled at the fold with a long arm stapler. Zines can feature hand-colored illustrations, deluxe audio companions, screen-printed covers, and vary considerably in size (the smallest zine in our collection, Jordan Alam’s What to Do if You Experience Emotional Stress Burnout, measures approximately 7 x 5.5 cm). Tey can be as breathtakingly beautiful as one of their semantic neighbors, the artists’ book, or entirely functional, like a simple pamphlet. I was compelled to start a zine collection at SUNY New Paltz, the 4-year comprehensive college where I serve as metadata and reference librarian, after Barnard College zine librarian Jenna Freedman and artist and author Jacinta Bunnell presented on our campus in February 2014. Freedman has been a leader in the zine library world for over a decade, creating invaluable web resources for other zine librarians and contributing to eforts to organize and collaborate across collections. In addition to creating zines, Bunnell is the author of well-known radical coloring books including Girls Are Not Chicks (2009) and Te Big Gay Alphabet Coloring Book (2015). In February 2014, our University Writing Board provided organizational and fnancial support to bring them to campus. Together, Bunnell and Freedman ofered an afternoon workshop on how to make zines and an evening lecture entitled “Make Your Own Culture: Who Zine Creators Are, Why Tey Do What Tey Do, and Why it Matters.”1 As Stoddart and Kiser (2004) suggest, many zines present “a frst- person attempt to decipher and decode the world” (p. 193). In the context of an academic library, zines suggest to a user-community of predominately undergraduate students that they themselves could be authors, and their ideas are equally as worthy of an audience as the books that fll the stacks. In reference and instruction work, I have increasingly situated my defnition of peer review in a critical framework that challenges and seeks to democratize the concept of “expert” knowledge. Te zine library allows me to reinforce this by telling students: we want your writing—your ideas—for the library collection, just as much as the latest university press anthology. Since the zine library’s inception, over forty students have contributed to the collection, providing their own summaries and keywords to guide choice of subject headings for the catalog records. Teir zines sit on shelves near the main foor periodicals area for anyone to pick up and read. In her 2008 article “Why Zines Matter: Materiality and the Creation of Embodied Community,” author Allison Piepmeier clarifed the impact of sharing actual print copies of 1. Slides from this talk are available on Slideshare at http://www.slideshare.net/ zines on student participation in her classes: jenna/newpaltz

Read a Zine, Then Make One, Then Catalog it: Creating a Zine Library at SUNY New Paltz | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 87 My students have been inspired to become part of the zine community because of physical encounters with actual zines, not by reading anthologized zines. In a world where more and more of us spend all day at our computers, zines reconnect us to our bodies and other human beings. (p. 214)

Education scholar Joe Kincheloe suggested, “critical pedagogy is dedicated to the alleviation of human sufering,” particularly in its focus on the experiences of those who are silenced by the dominant culture (2004, p. 11). Zines can give voice to those experiences and share resources for creating change, bringing a critical lens into the library where personal narratives are often mufed or muted by the scholarly discourse in which they are embedded. Users may fnd their own concerns refected on the photocopied page. Tey may also gain new insights that inform developing social critiques, or critiques of their chosen feld of study. In keeping with a critical pedagogical framework, the zine library at SUNY New Paltz developed as a collaborative project undertaken with students, as opposed to a top-down ofering from the library to the campus. At Freedman and Bunnell’s presentation, I connected with several students who were involved with zines (both as makers and as readers) and started an email list of those interested in starting a zine club or campus project of some kind. Te community that evolved out of this initial group of contacts was instrumental to building and promoting the zine library and has been active in nearly every part of its maintenance and growth.

The New Paltz Zine Library: a Proposal

In early spring of 2014, I presented a short proposal for a zine collection to Mark Colvson, Dean of the Sojourner Truth Library at SUNY New Paltz. Knowing that librarian time and institutional budgets were already stretched thin, I envisioned a collection that compromised access in order to conserve time and resources. To limit processing and preservation costs, the collection would be for browsing in the library only. Zines would not be cataloged in our ILS, but tracked in a spreadsheet and inventoried periodically. As Stoddart and Kiser (2004) found in their survey of zines in libraries, zines are sometimes cataloged, but often outside of an ILS or within an ILS but described at the collection level only. While I was confdent that users would stumble on an un-cataloged collection, I did lament what would have been a missed opportunity to collocate zines with other research materials. Tankfully, the Dean disagreed with my proposal

Read a Zine, Then Make One, Then Catalog it: Creating a Zine Library at SUNY New Paltz | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 88 to leave the collection un-cataloged, allowing me to commit some of my time to original and copy cataloging. Ultimately the zine library has been fully integrated into our ILS, signifcantly enhancing discoverability. In “Your Zine Tool Kit, a DIY Collection,” Freedman suggests a start-up budget of $500 for a new zine library. Following this suggestion allowed us to purchase the zines and display materials needed to establish a small collection.2 Te majority of zines are priced somewhere between free and ten dollars, which in many cases covers little more than the author’s copying and mailing costs.3 How to select zines for the collection was a more challenging question, one that the students helped to answer. Especially in the frst year of the zine library, a student group which had formed out of discussions at Freedman and Bunnell’s presentation met regularly to talk about zine making and the development of the zine library. In the early meetings of what was then called the Zine Collective, I collaborated with the students to craft a collection development policy for the zine library. We agreed that zines dealing with identity or intersections of identity were a good ft for our campus; SUNY New Paltz has a number of academic programs that address issues related to identity (Black Studies, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and Deaf Studies to name a few) and a student body that is engaged in conversations about identity, power, and oppression. We also agreed that including zines with strong visual elements would serve the interests of our undergraduate and graduate Fine Arts programs. DIY or “do it yourself” instructional zines were included as they represent an important genre in the zine universe. Zines locally produced, both by students on our campus and throughout the Hudson Valley, were a high priority. When I presented the collection development policy to the library faculty, there was general support and enthusiasm for the project: one librarian suggested that it would be better suited to a public library environment, but providing evidence of similar collections at peer institutions allayed concerns. Te only suggested change to the 2. It’s worth noting that the $500 estimate was made by Jenna Freedman policy itself was that we include zines that address sustainability as in 2006 dollars, and that since we received this initial investment from an environmental and energy-use concept. SUNY New Paltz hired a Sojourner Truth Library we have sustainability coordinator in May 2013 and has been actively working been able to integrate zine collection development into the general print toward creating a more environmentally conscious and sustainable budget, allowing us to continue purchasing zines. campus. Including zines that deal with related issues seemed like a good way to refect this campus-wide priority. Te fnal collection 3. Artist’s books, a category that overlaps some with zines, can be considerably development policy for the zine library, approved by the library more expensive. faculty in April 2014, is as follows:

Read a Zine, Then Make One, Then Catalog it: Creating a Zine Library at SUNY New Paltz | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 89 As defned by the Barnard College Zine Library, ‘A zine is a self-publication, motivated by a desire for self-expression, not for proft.’ Te Zine Collection at the Sojourner Truth Library touches several distinct topical areas of importance to the campus and wider New Paltz community. Among these are zines that address intersections of gender, sexuality, race, ability, and identity, particularly in a larger political, social or economic context. Other areas include environmental or sustainability-related topics, how- to zines, and zines that express strong visual or fne arts elements. Local zines, and zines produced by New Paltz community members are heavily collected, while equal eforts are made to draw from unique or under-represented voices from across the country.

Initially, I was a bit concerned that we were being too broad in our policy, so I contacted other zine libraries to learn more about how they approached collection development. Trough these informal conversations, I found that libraries employ a signifcant range of practices. Some had carefully defned policies that had been fne-tuned over the years; others accepted almost any zine (this was especially true of collections that relied exclusively on donations). Given that our collection is new and resources are limited, we have been slightly more relaxed in applying the policy to donated items, but adhere to it closely when purchasing zines with library funds.

Collaborative Collection Development and Description

After co-creating our collection development policy, students involved in the project began to populate a shared spreadsheet with requests for zines they felt we should purchase. Together we read reviews, located zines seen or heard through personal connections, and selected titles from zine “distros” (online distributors that sell zines produced by multiple authors, anywhere from a few to dozens). I worked with the collection development librarian and acquisition clerks to order many of these online, and purchased dozens more at the Brooklyn Zine Fest and other zine-related events. I quickly realized I would not be able to catalog all the zines myself and keep up with my regular cataloging work and reference responsibilities. In a show of support, the library funded two zine library interns at four hours each per week for the summer of 2014, and has continued to support one (and occasionally two) interns per semester ever since. By working with these students, all of whom were zine-makers and readers themselves, the collection began to take shape.

Read a Zine, Then Make One, Then Catalog it: Creating a Zine Library at SUNY New Paltz | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 90 Te zine library interns and I used a relay workfow to catalog zines: for titles requiring original records, interns entered metadata in a Google spreadsheet broken down by MARC felds, and I reviewed entries and transfered them into an OCLC record. Along the way, we built a list of local subject headings, drawing on a zine thesaurus created by the Anchor Archive in Halifax, Canada. Some Library of Congress Subject Headings have been sufcient to describe the collection and we use these whenever possible to collocate zines with books and other media in our library-wide holdings, but there are cases where the language used by a particular community is not accurately refected in LCSH. Anchor Archive headings like “queer identity,” “ableism,” and “body politics” have allowed us to describe important concepts in zines and ensure language used by readers and researchers is refected in the catalog records for these items.4 Borrowing heavily from Barnard College Zine Library’s genre descriptions, we also developed our own high-level categories for organizing the zine library (e.g. personal zines, DIY zines, minicomics), so users might browse categories in addition to entering topical keyword and subject searches. To make locally produced zines discoverable, the heading “Hudson Valley zines” is applied to works from the region, and “School zines” to any zine made for course credit.5

Outreach and Programming

Promotion of the zine library began in 2014 with campus emails and a Facebook page which has been maintained by zine library interns. Zine collective students also designed buttons and stickers to distribute at events. In the frst year, we applied for and received a $500 grant from College Auxiliary Services to provide programming related to the collection, which funded three events: an evening zine reading, a two-hour workshop where participants would learn how to get started making cut and paste zines, and a more advanced tutorial on using Adobe InDesign for zine layout. We also began taking a “pop-up” library to events, and collaborating with faculty to bring zines into the classroom. During the 2015-2016 academic year, the number of librarian and 4. For a discussion of ethical concerns around zine librarianship, including paid intern hours devoted to the zine library grew considerably as another issues around cataloging, and colocation see Zine Librarians Code of Ethics librarian, Lydia Willoughby, joined the project and we were able to hire Zine, accessible as printable PDF two zine library interns to work simultaneously for the spring semester. at zinelibraries.info/wordpress/wp- content/uploads/2015/11/EthicsZine- Tis growth in numbers and devoted time facilitated a signifcant rev-20151105.pdf or bit.ly/zineethics expansion in outreach and programming. We collaborated on zine- 5. Tis heading is borrowed from making/reading events with several student organizations and the Graphic Barnard College Zine Library although we may defned its scope in a slightly Design program, increased course-related instructions, added an Instagram diferent way.

Read a Zine, Then Make One, Then Catalog it: Creating a Zine Library at SUNY New Paltz | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 91 Figure 3. New Paltz Zine Library Facebook Group, Screen capture of photo library grid, November 2014. Image courtesy of the New Paltz Zine Library, Sojourner Truth Library, SUNY New Paltz.

Figure 4. Buttons designed by Portia Melita and Brian Sarco and digitally edited by Crystal Zoodsma, 2014. Image courtesy of the New Paltz Zine Library, Sojourner Truth Library, SUNY New Paltz.

account, and replaced what was a very clunky zine library LibGuide with a WordPress site.6 Te intention of the new website is for collection communication (who we are, kinds of programming ofered). It also serves as a point of contact, inviting submission of zines for inclusion in the collection, instruction requests, and requests for one-on-one 6. See New Paltz Zine Library website at http://hawksites.newpaltz.edu/ consultations about zines and zine-making. zines/.

Read a Zine, Then Make One, Then Catalog it: Creating a Zine Library at SUNY New Paltz | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 92 Across all programming and outreach eforts, communicating what zines are and the kinds of opportunities they provide for author agency, connection, and self-expression has been essential. We have endeavored to achieve this by “showing” as often as “telling”: bringing zines into new spaces and using them to start conversations. We created a small zine about zines to serve as another tool, and in the future hope to run a fyer campaign highlighting the collection and its oferings to the campus and community.

Zine Library Interns

It is the creativity and dedication of our zine library interns that drives programming and outreach. Te interns are paid library student staf working between 3-4 hours a week; most semesters we have one, but for two (nonconsecutive) terms we have hired two, allowing valuable programmatic growth and maintenance of institutional memory. Te interns have helped set our course for the collection, facilitating new relationships with student groups, classes, and guest speakers. Tey have also developed workshop ideas and co-led instruction both in and beyond the classroom. Over the past year, they helped develop our mission and vision, organize content for a new website, and develop policy for a zine kit project we are piloting in fall 2016. In spring 2016, Kelly Lindberg, an intern who worked with us for over a year, elected to take on additional internship hours for credit toward her major in Digital Media and Journalism. During that time, she created a short flm about the history and signifcance of the New Paltz Zine Library in the lives of students, faculty, and alumni. Tis flm, accompanied by a short zine, became an honor’s thesis project.7 Lindberg shared selections from the flm at conferences hosted by the State University of New York Library Association (SUNYLA) and the Southeastern New York Library Resources Council (SENYLRC). We have been fortunate to have funding for zine library interns during lean budget years. Te position value can be articulated in the language of the College’s strategic plan, which calls for the establishment of “an engaged living and learning community,” and stronger “regional and community engagement” (SUNY New Paltz, 2013).

Zine Readings

7. Te flm, Aboveground and the While zines often facilitate a private exchange of art and ideas, hosting Underground Converge: Te New public readings has increased visibility and community engagement. Paltz Zine Library, is available for streaming Inviting readers to share not only their own zines but other zines from

Read a Zine, Then Make One, Then Catalog it: Creating a Zine Library at SUNY New Paltz | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 93 the collection helps to inspire participation across the spectrum of readers and authors, and encourages readers to become authors. At our frst reading in the fall of 2014, four readers presented their own zines and the remaining fve shared zines from the collection, including Te Unlikely -- Yet True -- Love of Nikola Tesla and Captain Ahab, and How to Swear Successfully in Polish: a Basic Vocabulary Primer. We held the event at the campus black box theater, and set up a document camera so readers could project any portions of the zines they wanted to highlight (illustrations, spread layouts, etc.) As the readers turned pages under the camera and prefaced selected passages and illustrations with their own refections, the audience was folded into a personal encounter with the zine.8 While most readers were current students, we had extended a special invitation to Kate Larson, author of the personal zine No Better than Apples. Larson is well-known in zine communities on the East Coast and beyond, and also a New Paltz alumna and early supporter of the zine library who started making zines while a student at New Paltz. Subsequent readings have been more informal and paired with other events, as have our pop-up libraries, which bring curated selections from the collection into an array of spaces on campus and in the community. At campus student fairs and orientation events, our goal has been to facilitate frst encounters with zines and encourage engagement with the collection. Topical pop-ups have included a selection of environmental zines shared in the foyer outside a lecture on sustainability, LGBTQ+ zines brought to a trans* issues conference, and feminist zines highlighted at an of-campus book talk and music event about the riot grrl movement.

Zine Workshops

Since the zine library’s inception, we have held four stand-alone workshops on creating zines and collaborated with several student organizations incorporating zine-making into existing programming or club meetings. While most of our workshops focus on the cut and paste method of creating zines, collaboration with the Graphic Design program and a guest lecture by book designer Darla Stabler has provided guidance for laying out zines using Adobe InDesign. At the fall 2014 workshop, local artist and zinester Jacinta Bunnell introduced participants to some of the tools and practices of cut and 8. Tis format for simultaneously “showing” and reading is one I paste zine-making. frst saw employed by artists’s book maker and Art Library Technical Te majority of students in attendance had never made a zine before; Assistant Josh Hockensmith at many were there out of curiosity, and a few for extra credit ofered by an event he organized at UNC Chapel Hill’s Sloane Art Library on faculty teaching related courses. Bunnell asked students to look at zines September 14th, 2010.

Read a Zine, Then Make One, Then Catalog it: Creating a Zine Library at SUNY New Paltz | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 94 NEW PALTZ ZI NE LIBRARY ( @STL) PRESENTS . A WORKSHOP: ;.__,.;. ~. . ~ . ,,~ _,.,...... ~ ~~,-•,..~ . • •·r "-..__,_.. . :, .. - . ~--"' ,· ~ ·• "' ' .....~ .., LEARN HOW TO MAKE

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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19 th 6:30-8:30PM , Old Main Room 1907 (lower floor) ► , ~ .,~~~-,.: ·- ~ ~1--;: ~~ ;_~ Yes but what IS a ZINE? ~ ~ ' / tC..;;.f.f: ; ~~ -r~ . I ' .,,. ·• t>"l;,a."oa;>~• ...-i - -~' - : '" "',:, .. .. ~ - 'II" _ ... _.~ ~ .. In a few words, it's a self-published pamphlet motivated by · _·,~ the desire to share writing with others - it can be anything ~~ ,a from a series of political essays to poems or comics . All you ~ -; - need is a copy machine, and a desire to get your ideas out ." ,-.·~" , there! , . ..· · All Materials Provided -.-r ~ , Figure 5. Flyer from zine-making ~- workshop, November 2014. Image or e-mail veitchm @new paltz.edu ~ ~ courtesy of the New Paltz Zine Facebook.comfNewPaltzZines .,!,• Library, Sojourner Truth Library, SUNY New Paltz. from the library collection and share some of the things they observed— ranging from the tone or content to physical observations about printing, size, and binding. During the hands-on portion of the evening, she covered the tables with old magazines, glue sticks, scissors, and sharpies, and demonstrated how to make a one-page mini folded zine, along with larger format layouts.

Read a Zine, Then Make One, Then Catalog it: Creating a Zine Library at SUNY New Paltz | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 95 Zines produced that evening ranged from the personal to the surreal, and included titles like How to Survive College Swimming, Rules I Live By, Birth of Chet, and Te Guide to Escaping Successfully without a Trace. As everyone was packing up to leave at the end of the night, one student commented “it felt good to use my brain in a diferent way,” and another expressed how hard it was going to be to put her zine down and get back to writing a paper. While zine-making is certainly an avenue for political and creative self-expression, this feedback served as a reminder that creating zines can be a welcome opportunity for stress relief. As many academic libraries turn to leisure reading collections, and special events intended to meet this need, it was instructive to fnd that zines could play a role in stress reduction programming.

Figure 6. Birth of Chet (back cover) by Goat Girl, made at the November 2014 zine-making workshop held at SUNY New Paltz. Image courtesy of the New Paltz Zine Library, Sojourner Truth Library, SUNY New Paltz.

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Figure 7. Excerpts from Self-Care Quilt. By Take Back the Night and the New Paltz Zine Library, Edited by Zine Library Interns Jen Campos and Kelly Lindberg, Spring 2016. Image courtesy of the New Paltz Zine Library, Sojourner Truth Library, SUNY New Paltz.

In spring 2016, we collaborated with the Take Back the Night programming committee (a student group) to bring zine-making to a self- care event they hosted on campus. Zine library interns Jen Campos and Kelly Lindberg organized a compilation zine project, inviting each participant to create a page about their own self-care strategies. Te pages were assembled, copied, and distributed to contributing authors as the zine Self Care Quilt. Te interns also created their own anthologized zine with cited excerpts from our collection, A Handy Guide for Hands-On Self Care, which was distributed at the event.

·1 ~·-',\ "1. ~ .::. >, , -•· · ,,i r ~ The New Paltz Zine Library team made this compilation for Take Back the Night 2016 A HANDY GU/OEat SUNY New Paltz .

This zine includes excerpts FOR HANDS-ONfrom zines all about self care that are in our collection at the Sojourner SElFCRRE! Truth Library! EXCBIPTS 1RCMOf NEWSOME PlllTZ 11NElJIJRARYS xoxo, FA""'1/1E 1/NESffJR TAKE l1AtK THE NIGHT 2016

. SIIIYNEWMl.Tl Zine Library Interns

Kelly Lindberg and Jen Campos

More about the New Paltz Zine Library: bit . ly/ stl zine Figure 8. Cover and introduction from f acebook . com/ A Handy Guide for Hands-On Self Care. Ne wpalt zzi nes Edited by Zine Library Interns Jen Campos and Kelly Lindberg, Spring Email us: zines@newpal tz 2016. Image courtesy of the New Paltz . edu Zine Library, Sojourner Truth Library, SUNY New Paltz.

Read a Zine, Then Make One, Then Catalog it: Creating a Zine Library at SUNY New Paltz | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 97 Zines in the Classroom

Social media and regular events have been essential steps toward integrating the zine library into the broader culture of campus—both academically, and in the broader realm of student experience. Trough targeted outreach, we have gradually developed relationships with faculty who are interested in using zines in the classroom. Several instructors in the English Composition Program have assigned students to make a zine that builds on a theme from their formal writing assignments. In spring 2015, I and current and former zine library interns gave a short presentation to a Tematic Drawing class, returning a month later to see zines produced in a related assignment, many of which were submitted for inclusion in the zine library. We have also been invited to give lectures on zine history and in-class workshops for courses in the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies department. As Alana Kumbier and others have pointed out, zines can be a great resource for helping students understand that “authority is contextual,” (2014, p. 164) which aligns with the frst frame in ACRL’s Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (ACRL, 2015). In future instruction sessions, we hope to better integrate zines into instruction activities related to this portion of the Framework.

Access and Digitization

As the collection grows and members of the campus community express new interest in these materials, we have received a number of questions related to accessing zines. Up until now, nearly all of the zines have been non-circulating, though a few commercially bound and anthologized zines circulate, but will transition to circulating in protective envelopes in the coming year. Circulating zines means compromising on preservation but this is very much in keeping with our mission to provide a low barrier of access to the collection. In a world where so much art and writing is published online through Tumblr and other online blogging platforms, we have been asked about whether our zines could be put online for easier access. In fact, in spring 2015, students in a digital humanities class built an online collection through Omeka to house works from the zine library. Students were careful to obtain permission from zine authors and artists before posting scans of the work online. While selected titles may be shared digitally at some point, the important truth remains that zines are frst and foremost print entities, dispersed on a human scale since long before the Web provided other

Read a Zine, Then Make One, Then Catalog it: Creating a Zine Library at SUNY New Paltz | The Reading Room | Fall 2016 | Volume 2, Issue 1 98 New Paltz Zine Library Online Browse Items. Browse CotledK>flS About BtoVJSeExh 1b1ts -